Critics Agree, J.C. Chandor's "Margin Call" Is A Hit

Wall Street Journal calls Wooster alum's debut feature "entertainment with smarts"

WOOSTER, Ohio, Oct. 21, 2011 – “Margin Call,” the first feature film from writer-director J.C. Chandor ’96, opened today to critical acclaim.

“It is hard to believe that ‘Margin Call’ is Mr. Chandor’s first feature,” wrote A.O. Scott in The New York Times. “His formal command — his ability to imply far more than he shows or says and to orchestrate a large, complex drama out of whispers, glances, and snippets of jargon — is downright awe-inspiring.”

The film follows a group of traders and executives at a Wall Street investment bank through 36 hours in the fall of 2008, as they struggle to come to grips with a crisis that threatens to sweep them, their clients, and the entire firm away.

“It is a tale of greed, vanity, myopia, and expediency that is all the more damning for its refusal to moralize,” Scott wrote, “…relentless in its honesty and shrewd in its insights.”

Joe Morgenstern in The Wall Street Journal agreed, calling it “chilling and enjoyable…entertainment with smarts, and a well-honed edge.”

The film’s ensemble cast includes Kevin Spacey, Jeremy Irons, Demi Moore, Stanley Tucci, Zachary Quinto, and Simon Baker. “It was Chandor’s script,” wrote Los Angeles Times film critic Kenneth Turan, “filled with tart exchanges and involving situations that explore unexpected areas of corporate psychology and human behavior, that attracted the high-powered cast…”

Chandor wrote and directed scores of commercials, music videos, and documentaries before putting together all the pieces, from financing to cast to script, for his first feature.

A varsity swimmer at Wooster who designed his own cultural film studies major, he calls himself “a classic Wooster case.”

“I had decent but not great grades in high school, because I was highly motivated in some subjects, like the arts, drama, English, and history, but in math and science I was a screw up. Wooster saw something in me and I really flourished there. I got into theatre, took photography and painting classes.”

For his senior Independent Study project, Chandor wrote, shot, and edited a film that he now cheerfully admits was “a total overreach, too vast in scope and scale…but I got jobs right away after graduation based on it.”

The College of Wooster is an independent liberal arts college, nationally recognized for excellence in teaching and a curriculum built around mentored undergraduate research. Every Wooster senior works one-on-one with a faculty adviser to create an original research project, written work, performance or art exhibit. Founded in 1866, the college enrolls approximately 2,000 students.