{"id":231,"date":"2015-01-29T11:40:01","date_gmt":"2015-01-29T16:40:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/culturated.com\/?p=231"},"modified":"2015-01-29T23:55:40","modified_gmt":"2015-01-30T04:55:40","slug":"a-most-violent-year-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/culturated.com\/a-most-violent-year-review\/","title":{"rendered":"A Most Violent Year Review"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span id=\"yui_3_16_0_1_1422391820333_18093\">If all you know about this movie is the name and the fact that it\u2019s set in New York in 1981\u2013 one of the most violent years in the city&#8217;s history\u2013 you might expect a Scorsese-style epic along the lines of <a title=\"Goodfellas via Wikipedia\" href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Goodfellas\" target=\"_blank\"><i id=\"yui_3_16_0_1_1422391820333_18095\">Goodfellas<\/i><\/a>. <\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span id=\"yui_3_16_0_1_1422391820333_18093\">If you do, you\u2019ll come away sorely disappointed, particularly by protagonist Abel Morales (Oscar Isaac), a law-abiding entrepreneur struggling to stay clean in an increasingly corrupt business environment. <\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span id=\"yui_3_16_0_1_1422391820333_18093\">The film was written and directed by J.C. Chandor, the auteur behind 2011\u2019s critically acclaimed <i>Margin Call<\/i> and 2013\u2019s <i id=\"yui_3_16_0_1_1422391820333_18104\">All Is Lost<\/i>.\u00a0Chandor comes from the\u00a0<a title=\"Sidney Lumet\" href=\"http:\/\/www.anb.org\/articles\/18\/18-03872.html\" target=\"_blank\">Sidney Lumet\u00a0<\/a>school of dramatic craftsmanship, creating a richly detailed atmosphere and filling it with characters who are given ample space and time to reveal their myriad complexities.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div style=\"text-align: center;\"><span class=\"embed-youtube\" style=\"text-align:center; display: block;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"youtube-player\" width=\"1050\" height=\"591\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/ySWXwXlXlQU?version=3&#038;rel=1&#038;showsearch=0&#038;showinfo=1&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;fs=1&#038;hl=en-US&#038;autohide=2&#038;wmode=transparent\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" style=\"border:0;\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups allow-presentation allow-popups-to-escape-sandbox\"><\/iframe><\/span><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: center;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: center;\"><\/div>\n<p><span id=\"yui_3_16_0_1_1422391820333_18093\">In short, he\u2019s an \u201cactor\u2019s director,\u201d and with <i id=\"yui_3_16_0_1_1422391820333_18103\">A Most Violent Year<\/i> he\u2019s assembled a stellar cast that includes Isaac, Jessica Chastain (as Isaac\u2019s wife Anna, the daughter of a notorious mobster), Albert Brooks (as their attorney), Alessandro Nivola (as a hard-nosed business competitor) and David Oyelowo (as a detective). <\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span id=\"yui_3_16_0_1_1422391820333_18093\">The story follows the Morales\u2019 attempts to finance the expansion of their growing heating oil business just as competition in New York City is heating up and the police are investigating their business for tax fraud. <\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span id=\"yui_3_16_0_1_1422391820333_18093\">A huge make-or-break deal is on the table, but the Morales\u2019 trucks keep getting highjacked, their drivers and salesmen keep getting attacked, and both Anna and the local union rep are getting fed up with Abel\u2019s stubborn refusal to let his employees arm themselves, much less fight back. <\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/culturated.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/a-most-violent-year1.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-235\" src=\"http:\/\/culturated.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/a-most-violent-year1.jpg\" alt=\"a-most-violent-year\" width=\"800\" height=\"350\" srcset=\"https:\/\/culturated.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/a-most-violent-year1.jpg 800w, https:\/\/culturated.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/a-most-violent-year1-300x131.jpg 300w, https:\/\/culturated.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/a-most-violent-year1-330x144.jpg 330w, https:\/\/culturated.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/a-most-violent-year1-690x301.jpg 690w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span id=\"yui_3_16_0_1_1422391820333_18093\">The underlying tension simmers rather than burns, with Chandor slowly but surely ratcheting things up. But, despite the occasional chase scene here or fight scene there, it never really threatens to boil over into thriller territory. <\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span id=\"yui_3_16_0_1_1422391820333_18093\">Chastain is particularly impressive, letting her character\u2019s rough \u2019n\u2019 tumble past bubble to the surface as her frustrations with Abel build. But some viewers may be equally frustrated with the film\u2019s languid pacing, and with a lead character who seems unwilling or unable to protect his family or his employees. <\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span id=\"yui_3_16_0_1_1422391820333_18093\">As a huge fan of <i id=\"yui_3_16_0_1_1422391820333_18101\">All Is Lost<\/i>, I came away from <i>A Most Violent Year<\/i> slightly underwhelmed. While there\u2019s no denying Chandor\u2019s growing talent, his latest film could\u2019ve benefitted from a dose of the intense theatrics of Lumet\u2019s <i>Dog Day Afternoon <\/i>and<i> Network.\u00a0 <\/i><b id=\"yui_3_16_0_1_1422391820333_18097\"><i id=\"yui_3_16_0_1_1422391820333_18096\">\u2013Bret Love<\/i><\/b><\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>RATING:<\/strong> Rated R for language and some violence<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>GENRE:<\/strong> \u00a0Action Crime Drama<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>DIRECTED BY:<\/strong> \u00a0J.C. Chandor<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>WRITTEN BY<\/strong>: J.C. Chandor<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>MAIN CAST: <\/strong>Oscar Isaac, Jessica Chastain, David Oyelowo<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>STUDIO:<\/strong> A24<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>If all you know about this movie is the name and the fact that it\u2019s set in New York in 1981\u2013 one of the&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":252,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[3,11],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/culturated.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/A-Most-Violent-Year-movie.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5slei-3J","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/culturated.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/culturated.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/culturated.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/culturated.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/culturated.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=231"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/culturated.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/culturated.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/252"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/culturated.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=231"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/culturated.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=231"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/culturated.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=231"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}