The Best Film About Wall Street Ever Is On Prime Video/Tubi

Now streaming on Amazon and Tubi, Margin Call remains the definitive dramatization of the 2008 financial crisis.

Though critics gave more attention to the admittedly terrific documentary Inside Job, no film better illuminated and dramatized the financial crisis of 2008 than Margin Call.

First-time director J.C. Chandor’s incredibly assured film kept me wildly riveted, as he insightfully (yet objectively) depicted the ethical dilemmas that many financial heads faced as dire cracks in the foundation of our nation’s economy began splintering beyond repair. Thanks to our knowledge of the resulting economic catastrophe, the film is seeped with enough panic and dread to outdo 10 big-budget, 2012-style disaster flicks. The writing (also by Chandor) is crisp and engrossing, and there are savory performances from both relative unknowns and established stars (Paul Bettany, Kevin Spacey, Stanley Tucci, Jeremy Irons, Demi Moore).

Margin Call reminds me of The Wire in that it resists the temptation to make villains out of easy targets—in Margin Call, bankers; in The Wire, drug dealers, politicians, mobsters, and more. Instead, it focuses on how the invisible strings of society make puppets of us all.

Perhaps this professional film critic can convince you: David Denby of The New Yorker called it “one of the strongest American films of the year and easily the best Wall Street movie ever made,” noting how its haunting visuals—like the camera tracking silently through an empty trading floor at night—turn a once-thriving company into a ghostly relic.