A Most Violent Year

A far more interesting film than its title implies. And a film you’ve never seen before.

J. C. Chandor's A Most Violent Year is a powerfully told story, a thrilling surprise, and both Oscar Isaac and Jessica Chastain do remarkable work.

Evocatively shot by "Selma" wizard Bradford Young, A Most Violent Year reflects a world where nothing is held sacred. You watch with nerves clenched, holding on tight.

A Most Violent Year, Chandor’s absorbing no-bull NYC drama, further clarifies what might be the most promising career in American movies: an urban-headed filmmaker attuned to economies of place and time, with an eye on the vacant throne of Sidney Lumet.

This is a film for actual moviegoing grown-ups who don't mind a little quality now and then.

Like that camel-hair coat Abel wears, A Most Violent Year is classy and commands respect, but a stronger pulse under the lapels would make us care much more.

Grand in its aims but tepid in its conclusions, A Most Violent Year burns slow and gives off very little heat. It's not really that violent. But it sure feels like a year.

After only Margin Call and A Most Violent Year, J.C. Chandor is one of my favorite directors. The way he sets up and executes dramatic conversational moments without overplaying his hand is remarkable. Isaac, Chastain, and Oyelowo are at the absolute head of the class, and they are each pitch perfect in this film. About halfway through the proceedings, I wanted so badly to have this movie serve as the pilot to a new dramatic series. But by the end I was so happy that it stands alone and does so so powerfully.

Such a slow-burn that it never makes a single flame but rather just glows like dying coals in a campfire. I love a lot of the cast. But it seems to me that the whole film was one giant McGuffin. This is a film that you merely observe rather than get absorbed by. There's not enough magnetism to keep one intrigued. I am although glad to see it wasn't trolled too badly by other users, as it's not a bomb. Just something to watch once, take what you can salvage from it and move on quickly. Gonna have to give it a 6.

This movie is basically The Godfather part II but without the flashbacks and not nearly as good. It just doesn't feel like it has enough conflict. There is conflict, but it just doesn't feel like it. However, there are some really good moments in it that make it worth watching. The score is amazing. Well made and well acted, just not very engaging.

This certain cure for insomnia plays as an adaptation of scenes **** off the cutting room floors of Godfather and Goodfellas, plus one or two from The Wolf of Wall Street. The monotony is occasionally broken up by the film's only saving grace - the chemistry between Isaac and Chastain, who shine in their scenes together. Unfortunately, they are too few and far between, and this insipid drama shows just how little it has to say about any of the themes it touches on but makes no effort to try and explore. The lack of pace, action and plot development in the screenplay make A Most Violent Year, a most exhaustingly boring film.

Yet another pitifully over-rated little crime drama with no authentic script. Very thin on story and a tremendous bore. Like this director's last film, it skillfully masquerades by tone and camera work as something more rich and more important than it is. There's nothing much here. The plot is derivative of so many other mob and crime movies but with much lower stakes. This is a glorified student film made by someone who is stealing from past great films rather than portraying any kind of real experience and it shows all the way. The lead actor does his best Al Pacino and comes up short. He looks like him, probably how he got his career, and sounds like him when he raises his voice. What he misses is the original power and authority. Chastain does an accent and a type a hundred other actresses have tread over before and it's the same old same old. This film is a prime example of the boredom of watching actors act in a half baked scenario by a director fudging it as some kind of auteur unsuccessfully spinning much out of nothing at all.