Movie Review: Hello, cruel world

22 May 2015 - 02:07 By Tymon Smith

If JC Chandor's latest film had earned the Oscar nominations everyone thought it would, perhaps it would have landed on our screens earlier. Although A Most Violent Year won many plaudits from critics' associations prior to the Oscars, when nomination time came it was shamefully passed over. Despite that, this crime potboiler is worth the wait.In the tradition of the 1970s micro-dramas of Sidney Lumet and Francis Ford Coppola, Chandor tells the story of Abel Morales (Oscar Isaac), an immigrant who is working hard to realise a long-held dream of expanding his heating oil business. The problem is, he is trying to do it in a ruthless and shady industry and in 1981, the most violent year in the history of New York.Imagine that The Sopranos was a show about a man whose business actually was waste management and you are on the right track.Abel is determined always to take the right path, no matter how hard it may be, much to the irritation of his tougher-than-she-looks wife Anna (Jessica Chastain) and his long-term business adviser Andrew Walsh (Albert Brooks).As his oil trucks are targeted by competitors and he becomes the focus of an investigation by District Attorney Lawrence (David Oyelowo), Abel's insistence on remaining a good man trying to do his best in a dirty world becomes more difficult to sustain.All of which slowly simmers to boiling point under the expertly controlled direction of Chandor and thanks to superb performances from his cast. As Abel, Isaac with his camel-hair coat and dark eyes is reminiscent of the Al Pacino of the '70s, and Chastain gives a complex performance as the wife you should never underestimate.It is a film that is also faithful to its period, shot in de-saturated browns and greys, evoking the last days of the worst period in the often forgotten dilapidated and fear-filled era of New York history.Chandor, as he has in his previous films Margin Call and All is Lost, demands his audience pay attention to what is happening and listen carefully to what is said in order to understand the plot and who the characters gradually reveal themselves to be.It is, as others have noted, an anti-Godfather of sorts - a film in which not accepting the dark path is still possible despite the difficulties involved in achieving that aim in a morally murky world. It is also one of the most dramatically satisfying films you are likely to see this year.What others sayA fascinating skein of contradictions brought forcefully to life by Oscar Isaac, an actor who has evolved from being someone to watch into someone you can't take your eyes off. AO Scott, New York TimesA vibrant crime story filled to overflowing with crackling situations, taut dialogue and a heightened, even operatic sense of reality, it captures us and doesn't let go.Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles TimesRemarkable for what it is not - a movie about violence that features almost no gunplay, set in a particular period but refusing to fetishise it, and most surprising of all, it is actually interested in the business of business. Donald Clarke, The Irish Times..

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