The Insider.com

The Top 11 Movies of '11:

11. Margin Call/The Company Men

By DAVID WEINER

Okay, I'm cheating off the bat by including two movies in one slot, but Margin Call and The Company Men are thematically related and relevant; both manage to capture the zeitgeist of our current economic woes. Both films flew under the radar at the box office, where escapism always trumps reality, and both begin with a scene of employees getting downsized. The Company Men follows the paths of those who got the axe or have to live with the consequences of their business decisions, personified by Ben Affleck, Chris Cooper and Tommy Lee Jones – facing a bleak, highly competitive job market and learning to give up material goods, or worse. Margin Call scrutinizes just how the greed and ethics-free behavior of Wall Street's inner sanctum led to the domino effect of market panic in 2008, and Kevin Spacey, Jeremy Irons, Paul Bettany, Demi Moore, Simon Baker and Zachary Quinto crackle in this smart, ripped-from-the-headlines story.