This’ll be short and sweet, neither of which come easy to me.

I stumbled across Margin Call on HBO one evening a couple years after it was released (2011) to critical acclaim but, sadly, middling box office.

The film, which marks the debut of writer-director J.C. Chandor, tells the story of very fraught 24 hours at an unnamed Wall Street investment firm as the Financial Crisis of 2007-2008 ramps up.

In the midst of a round of layoffs, Risk Management department lead Eric Dale (Stanely Tucci)—an unexpected victim himself—hands his protege, Peter Sullivan (Zachary Quinto), a thumb drive containing data that, while disturbing, Dale hasn’t quite been able to fully crack in terms of how it affects the future of the firm. “Be careful,” he warns.

While his co-workers head out to celebrate the fact that they’ve been spared the ax, Sullivan, intrigued and a bit of an egghead (he received a doctorate in rocket science), settles in front of his computer to see what he can make of Dale’s numbers.

He soon discovers what eluded Dale—projections indicate that the firm is holding so many toxic assets (basically mortgage-backed securities) that, if they were to decrease by just 25% (not at all unlikely considering the market’s recent volatility), the loss would be greater than the market capitalization of the company. In other words, they’re—pardon my French—fucked.

Sullivan presents the sobering news to trading-desk lead Will Emerson (Paul Bettany), who then alerts trading-floor head Sam Rogers (Kevin Spacey), who then informs division-head Jared Cohen (Simon Baker), who then brings in CEO John Tuld (Jeremy Irons).

As the problem is kicked up the chain of command, a plan is formulated: rid the firm’s books of the “greatest pile of odiferous excrement in the history of capitalism.”

The good news: it’s doable and the firm will mostly likely live to fight another day. The bad: the firm’s trading floor will forever be tainted within the Wall Street community—after all, they’re peddling assets they know are soon to be worthless. (“If you do this,” warns Rogers, “you will kill the market for years. You will never sell anything to any of those people ever again.”)

Sound boring? It’s not. As a matter of fact, it’s strangely hypnotic, one of those films that, in the tradition of The Shawshank Redemption, once you stumble upon it, no matter the hour, you know you’re going to have to watch it through to the end.

What makes Margin Call so compelling? Well, certainly not the production, which, due to its subject matter, not to mention Chandor’s fledgling command of staging and composition (both of which have improved greatly in subsequent features, including All is Lost, A Most Violent Year and Triple Frontier), isn’t particularly dynamic.

No, it Chandor’s words (his script was nominated for an Academy Award) and the performances of those tasked with delivering them, the latter a veritable who’s who of actors (Irons, Spacey, Bettany, Tucci, Quinto) who specialize in spinning an ordinary line into gold. In other words, men capable of chewing some serious scenery. Even the less flashy cast members—Simon Baker and Demi Moore (yes, Demi Moore) among them—acquit themselves nicely.

Now, I want to qualify my “scenery chewing” comment. Traditionally, the expression has a mostly negative connotation. However, there are certain situations in which a little mastication can go a long way to breathing life into dialogue that laypeople would find somewhat dry (e.g. explanations of tranches and other obscure financial speak). Rather than overacting, I’m talking about underacting…with flourishes.

To illustrate my point, check out this fraught meeting in which the firm’s CEO asks his underlings for an accounting of the problem. What we get here is basically a three-for-one, with Quinto, Irons and Spacey all getting a chance to let fly their idiosyncratic delivery quirks, Quinto doing the hesitant brainiac, Irons playing homey but sinister and Spacey doing his Spacey thing.

Is it just me or could you watch Irons fiddle with his nose and express himself with those big, active hands all day long?

Scene after scene plays out like this, the actors breathing life into dialogue and situations that, on the surface, shouldn’t be so entertaining to watch. Check out this scene, late in the movie, when Spacey’s conflicted Rogers is given a history lesson by Irons’ Tuld about the cyclical nature of financial crises.

Just the best, highly recommended.

Check out Margin Call. It’s available on pretty much every streaming service (Youtube, Amazon Prime, Vudu, etc.).