Writer/director J.C. Chandor makes the kind of debut that assures we’ll be seeing more from him, and that’s a very good thing. Part “Wall Street,” part “Glengarry Glen Ross,” “Margin Call” takes us back to 2008, just before the economic collapse, and throws a dozen or so terrific actors into a situation where, over the course of one very long night, they will face the end of their world as they know it — and an impossible choice.

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Things are already bad at the 107 year-old Manhattan-based investment firm, bad enough that specialists who know how to manage those being unceremoniously laid off have been brought in to do just that. Eric (Stanley Tucci) works in risk management and has been with the company 19 years. Today he’s been given six months severance at half pay and a humiliating escort out the door. Before he reaches the lobby, his passwords have changed and his company phone’s been shut off. Before Eric leaves, though, he hands a thumb drive to one of his young protégés who wasn’t let go, Peter (Zachary Quinto), a 28 year-old Ph.D. graduate who decided to trade in the opportunity to be an actual rocket scientist for the money and action on “The Street.”

Thinking the worst is over after the layoffs, those who remain are able to exhale and get back to the business of buying and selling. But this is just the beginning. After work, Peter opens Eric’s thumb drive and discovers that his mentor was close to finishing a risk assessment report on the firm’s current holdings.  Curious, Peter finishes the report and is horrified to learn that the kind of worst case scenario no one ever dreams of is not only possible but inevitable.

To be sure his calculations are correct, Peter calls Seth (Peter Badgely) , a 23 year-old hollow man-child obsessed with money, and Will (Paul Bettany), a senior trader who could walk out of a mine field without mussing up his hair, back into the office only to have them confirm that the sky is indeed falling.

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Occupy Wall Street types seemed like the perfect audience for “Margin Call,” a film which shows some of the fiscal sleight of hand that factored into the 2008 financial crisis.

Not so fast, says “Margin Call” writer/director J.C. Chandor.

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Not only does the film refuse to paint all Wall Street denizens as cold-hearted villains, it shows that money isn’t always the driving factor in foul financial decisions.

“The situation is far more complicated than quote, unquote greed. Careers are on the line, people’s self worth,” Chandor tells Big Hollywood. “It’s beyond monetary gain.”

The film, which nabbed two Independent Spirit Award nominations (Best First Feature and Best First Screenplay), is now available via Blu-ray, DVD and digital download from Lions Gate.

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‘Margin Call’ begins like ‘Up in the Air,’ chronicling the downturn of the U.S. economy through the perspective of a human interest story. It tells the tale of a financial firm that realizes belatedly that it’s holding onto too much leverage when the economy starts to falter.

Instead of taking a broad look at the financial crisis of 2008, ‘Margin Call’ focuses on one company and takes place over the period of twenty four hours. Written and directed by J.C. Chandor, the film features a huge cast, so it’s often difficult to determine who the main character is. If there is a key player, it’s the company that employs most of the other characters–a firm that stands on the brink of collapse.

Eric Dale (Stanley Tucci), a risk management officer, is one of the firm’s first casualties. He loses his job early on when the company is forced to downsize. Before he is escorted out of the office, Eric hands former underling Peter Sullivan (Zachary Quinto) a disk showing an formula that he’s been working on to assess the company’s financial well-being. When Peter digs deep into future projections for the firm, he discovers that the company has dramatically over-leveraged itself with mortgage-bundled securities.

What starts out as a small discovery from a low-level employee quickly turns into something more. The revelation leads to meetings with managers, supervisors and eventually the head of the company. As the meetings move from one office to another one and from one floor to another, managers played by Simon Baker, Kevin Spacey, and Jeremy Irons are slowly introduced. (more…)

OPEN CONCERT: DAVI SING SINATRA TONIGHT IN LOS ANGELES

A message from our friend Robert Davi to the Big Hollywood Community:

My Dear Friends: I invite all of you to attend  my record release party and free concert at The Grove in Los Angeles, tonight at 8pm.

Tell your friends and… get ready to SWING.

–Robert Davi

Should be a real treat. Don’t miss it. More here.

STUDIOS MAY EXTEND KIOSK EMBARGO TO 60 DAYS

Smaller, independent kiosk operators plan to work around this by purchasing new movies at Walmart the same day they’re released in order to offer them up for rental — which begs a question. How do the studios stop Redbox from doing this?

Anyway, I can wait 60 days for crap. If they made it 90 days that would be even better.

And why isn’t the government looking into how ALL the studios make these decisions together? If Big Oil decided to get together and do something that would force us to pay more for a gallon of gas, you can bet the FTC would be involved.

How is this any different?

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DIXIE CHICKS’ VH1 STORYTELLERS AVAILABLE NOVEMBER 29

What are Dixie Chicks again?

All I seem to remember are three mouthy narcissists who were so desperate for attention they posed nude on the cover of Entertainment Weekly and then had a flop documentary made about them that portrayed the pampered multi-millionaires as victims of their own wildly stupid use of free speech.

Those Dixie Chicks?

Can I get a “whoa whatever”?

BREAKING: ZACHARY QUINTO IS STILL GAY

We have now entered day two of Zachary Quinto being gay. Rumor has it, he will still be gay tomorrow and possibly through the end of the week. Obviously this means that everything he does is more important than it was last week and it is now our duty to ooh and ahh over the profundity of everything He Who Is Above Using Capital Letters says.

Such an inspiration.

And why didn’t someone tell me that being gay suddenly makes everything you do so precious and important–you know, when there was still time for that information to do me some good?

HERESY: ‘TWILIGHT’ STARS JOIN IMMORTALS AT GRAUMAN’S CHINESE THEATRE

“Bloody Disgusting” has this exactly right. Over 80-plus years only around 250 recipients have been honored with immortality at Grauman’s and to have these three–who have done nothing other than star in a popular franchise–join is like having some one-hit wonder enter the Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame.

I love movies but, man alive, do I hate pop culture.

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Rebooting Bond with Daniel Craig was Bold. Christopher Nolan’s Reinvention of Batman was genius. But some thought it was overly-ambitious, even audacious, to attempt to restart the Star Trek franchise. It has begun to pay off already for Paramount Pictures, and there will dividends for years to come.

A shiny new Enterprise is luring in a new generation of STAR TREK fans

J.J. Abrams is officially the Lazarus of movie directors as his all-new Star Trek has gone “Boldly Gone Where No Star Trek Movie has Gone Before.” With a cast of relative unknowns, the 42-year-old has resurrected a franchise that had been killed by insular “nerdyness” and timid imagination. The Gene Rodenberry creation didn’t so much bomb as it died slowly over a period of years. First, the 2002 movie Star Trek: Nemesis starring the Next Generation cast disappointed with a meager $43.3M domestic. Then, the final TV series Enterprise, which starred Scott Bakula, was not embraced by core fans or broader audiences and was canceled after four seasons, ending May 13, 2005.

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J.J. Abrams reboot of the much beloved “Star Trek” franchise is reminiscent of the films that came before, but not the best of them. Like the other odd-numbered disappointments, this entry, number 11, works best when concentrating on character, but falls flat due to a dull villain with nothing to do other than act as a macguffin. After a splendid first hour expertly sets up and re-introduces the characters, the second half turns as derivative as a video game with superb special effects supporting poorly choreographed and frantically edited action sequences that carry no suspense because the outcome is obvious and the personal human drama missing.

“Trek” opens with what turns out to be its best scene and one of the best in the franchise; the circumstances around the birth of James Tiberius Kirk. Our hero is well-served here with an imaginative and exciting mythology that shows the filmmakers understand the unique importance of the character. This sequence is also effective in setting up our villain, the Romulan Nero (an almost unrecognizable Eric Bana), who’s leaping about in time hell-bent on the worst kind of revenge against the Federation for something yet to happen. (more…)

Several sources at competing studios have told me that J.J. Abrams’ all-new reboot of Star Trek (Paramount), which debuted last night at 7pm at many of its 3,849 locations, may have grossed as much as $6.5M-$7.5M. Studio honchos are “locked down tight” about actual numbers, but that is in the same ballpark as Transformers (Dreamworks/Paramount), which grabbed $8.8M in its previews starting at 8pm on Monday, July 2 during the summer of 2007. (What portion of ticket sales fall into Thursday and what percentage fall into Friday will likely be an open question even after final numbers are in.)

William Shatner (left) with Captain Kirk 2.0 Chris Pine

Keep in mind that Paramount never changed its Star Trek marketing to promote the 7pm Thursday start, so the opening night audience was likely heavy on Trekkers or Trekkies (not sure which term is “politically correct” anymore). So this was a “soft” opening and what amounts to a night of word-of-mouth screenings. Keep in mind that Transformers premiered during the summer when kids are more available while Star Trek has made its premiere during the school year.

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The all-new J.J. Abrams reboot of Star Trek (Paramount) will win the second weekend of the Hollywood Summer Box Office season by at least a couple of light years over Fox’s fast-fading X-Men Origins: Wolverine, but some of the astronomical numbers I’ve seen floating around in the blogosphere are very over-heated. Make no mistake, this movie will open extraordinarily well, but it’s not going to play out as a typical front-loaded blockbuster. Moviegoers need time to shake off the disappointment of the final TV series Enterprise (starring Scott Bakula and canceled after four seasons) and the disastrous 2002 final film Star Trek: Nemesis ($43.3M domestic). It will take time for a new generation of fans to discover the magic of Gene Rodenberry’s vision of the future through Abrams’ magical lens.

As of Wednesday night, Star Trek is cruising with 94% Fresh (positive) reviews on Rotten Tomatoes, and critics are slinging some seriously glowing hyperbole.

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