1. Ryan Gosling in The United States of Leland (2003) with Kevin Spacey
2. Kevin Spacey in Margin Call (2011)

That was too easy.

In lieu of a typical review, I thought I would just jot down a few quick notes on what I thought was a solid movie that a lot of people overlooked from last year: Margin Call.

Written and directed by newbie J.C. Chandor, the movie covers a 24-hour period during the first stages of a financial crisis at an investment company (wow I sound just like IMDb). The movie garnered more attention than it probably would have (no offense, J.C.) when that whole #Occupy movement happened last year around the time of the film’s release.

I could give a big plot summary here, but I don’t feel like that’s really necessary. Two things really stood out to me in the film: the dichotomy between the old/new guard of actors present here and the script. THE SCRIPT.

It’s really interesting to see actors like Kevin Spacey and Jeremy Irons sharing the screen with younger actors like Zachary Quinto and Penn Badgley. It’s fascinating from a Hollywood standpoint and also a cultural standpoint. To see how these two groups of people react to the crisis (I’m actually still not sure what the crisis is) really tells you a lot about the generational divide. And it also makes this film more relevant than a lot of Best Picture nominees from this year’s Oscars.

But the real star of the film is Chandor’s script, which was nominated for Best Original Screenplay this year and lost out to Woody Allen‘s Midnight in Paris. The film is kind of mediocre in general, but it is really elevated by the work Chandor put into the script. The words are so palpable, it’s almost as if they are coming off the screen. I seriously wouldn’t be surprised if acting coaches started taking pages of this script to study in classes.

So yeah, if you enjoy dichotomies (hooray for dictionary.com) and interesting screenplays, check out Chandor’s directorial debut. I can’t wait to see what he does next.