Spoiler alert: This article discusses key scenes from the film. J.C. Chandor has embraced Rahm Emanuel's dictum never let a serious crisis go to waste. The 37-year-old writer and director used the financial crisis as a springboard to create the most insightful Wall Street movie ever filmed. Margin Call captures a day in the life of a Lehman Brothers-like bank as it scrambles to avoid falling into the first cracks of the financial crisis. Briskly paced and marvelously acted, the movie reveals how large financial institutions operate and the motivations of the people who work within them.