Writer/director J. C. Chandor is a relative newcomer on the film scene whose work I hadn't really been paying any attention to, and now I think I should. Winner of The National Board of Reviews best picture award for 2014, A Most Violent Year is a period crime drama that came about because of Chandor's interest in doing a film about violence, and it propensity to spread. Set in and around New York City in the year 1981, statistically the most violent year in the cities history, the movie chronicles the husband (Oscar Isaac) and wife (Jessica Chastain) owners of a growing heating oil business, as they attempt to extract it from its (implied to be mob related) past under the previous owner (Chastain's father), and see it grow, while simultaneously dealing with a series of a truck hijackings that seem to be targeting their business, and fending off the criminal investigation against them by an ambitious young ADA (David Oyelowo). Albert Brooks plays Isaac's lawyer and right hand man.
The movie which this film reminds me of the most is probably There Will Be Blood, not in terms of plot line or setting but in terms of its relentless building to what forebodes to be a violent conclusion. Isaac is trying his hardest to keep his head above water as the outside pressure keeps mounting, it's a heck of a performance, and Chastain keeps pace with him all the way. Evocative of seventies crime dramas, particularly The French Connection, this move has remarkable restraint and seriousness to it, it never seems overplayed. A real achievement of a film. ****
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment