Margin Call (2011)

For a good while it’s able to coast on its well-crafted rising tension (you know shit’s going down even if you don’t understand all the corporate jargon) but once the stakes are made clear it starts to feel as bloated as everyone’s wallets: half the characters are pointless, the others are rich white men we don’t care about (Bettany’s great though), and the vague melodramatic dialogue hits the wall hard: “Are you sure it’s the only or right thing to do?” “For who?” “I’m not sure” “Neither am I”.

6

Triple Frontier (2019)

The music is strong, the editing is sharp, and the cinematography is sleek (lots of gorgeous wide shots of natural scenery). Isaac stands out among a solid cast and the plot is consistently engaging in its twisty mix of heist thrills and survival adventure. It’s the drama that doesn’t quite hit home: the characters are inconsistent, the moments of tension aren’t followed up on, and the thematic reflections on the morality of violence are uncomfortably weak (and ultimately undermined in the end).

6