Most Violent Year, A (2014) [Blu-ray]
Action | Crime | Drama | Thriller

Tagline: The result is never in question, just the path you take to get there.

Writer/director J.C. Chandor weaves the tale of an immigrant and his family trying to live the American Dream and expand their business amidst rampant violence, urban decay, and corrupt city officials during one of the most dangerous years in the city's history.

Storyline: A crime drama set in New York City during the winter of 1981, statistically one of the most violent years in the city's history, and centered on the lives of an immigrant and his family trying to expand their business and capitalize on opportunities as the rampant violence, decay, and corruption of the day drag them in and threaten to destroy all they have built. Written by Production

Reviewer's Note: Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman, April 4, 2015 -- J.C. Chandor doesn't have much of an official "oeuvre" yet, but he is slowly but surely establishing himself as one of the more interesting writer-directors of his generation. His debut feature Margin Call offered a labyrinthine but at times slightly overstuffed feeling trek through the arcane world of Wall Street wheelers and dealers. Chandor's next at bat was the curiously underappreciated (or at least under seen) All Is Lost, a tour de force for both solo star Robert Redford and Chandor himself, one that detailed a harrowing fight for survival by a lone sailor after an unexpected calamity threatens his ability to (sorry for this one, folks) keep his head above water. I wasn't quite the slavish acolyte of Margin Call that many other viewers and/or critics were, finding it a bit overheated while simultaneously underdeveloped, but All is Lost was simply such an achievement from a purely technical standpoint that it was impossible to ignore Chandor's rather amazing mastery this early in his career. Now with his third film Chandor returns to the ensemble format that made Margin Call viscerally intense (if sometimes a tad confusing), offering another exposé of business practices in the wild and wooly world of New York City. This time, however, it's not the high-falutin' environment of stock brokers in the throes of a 21st century financial meltdown, but an almost unbelievably vicious turf war in the somewhat unlikely sphere of heating oil (yes, heating oil) in what was evidently a "most violent year" in New York's roiling history, 1981. As convoluted as Margin Call (and arguably more so), but without the built in consternation that that film offered courtesy of its "in house" brokerage vocabulary and vernacular, A Most Violent Year is a slow burning but ultimately chilling discourse on the dangers of the American Dream, offering a well meaning immigrant named Abel Morales (Oscar Isaac) who has built a heating oil empire for himself that is being threatened both by violent competitors as well as a government investigation. Morales' seemingly inherent belief that any authentic American Dream will be able to overcome the nightmares of real life results in him being ensnared in a slowly tightening noose that includes frightening acts of violence aimed at his drivers (and, later, even salespeople and family) while a similarly driven District Attorney named Lawrence (David Oyelowo) starts poking his nose into a business he feels is rife with underworld shenanigans.

A quasi-montage of sorts presents two different scenarios which confront the viewer with both the visceral anxiety of a daylight "out in the wide open" brutal hijacking of one of Morales' heating oil trucks, as well as the more reserved, somewhat arcane, financial dealings Morales himself is undertaking, along with his sad sack attorney Andrew Walsh (Albert Brooks), in order to purchase an abandoned waterfront facility that will give Morales a leg up on his competition, allowing him to bypass traditional routes of getting his product into the city, and therefore perhaps negating any need to "worry" about the lawlessness that has led to the spate of hijackings. The current owners of the kind of dirty, dowdy port plant are ultra Orthodox Hasidim, a group which makes no bones about driving a hard bargain with Morales and Walsh, requiring a substantial upfront cash payment which will be forfeited if Morales can't get the entire deal closed within thirty days. That sets an anxiety producing stopwatch counting down the minutes, one which ticks inexorably in the background throughout A Most Violent Year, even if some of the onscreen activities are a bit more languorously presented.

Abel is obviously a decent guy, as is made evident when he visits the badly injured driver who was victim to the hijacking, a young immigrant himself named Julian (Elyes Gabel). Abel actually walks over and hugs the guy, offering words of comfort. While geniunely concerned, Abel's wife Anna (Jessica Chastain) doesn't have time for social niceties with Julian. She's concerned that this is just the beginning of a vicious turf war and that Abel's inherent politeness and reserve may not be up to the task of fighting back. As it plays out, it turns out that Anna's father had actually started the business Abel now owns, and that Anna's family is perhaps a "family" of another sort, one that is still able to "take care of business" (so to speak), if only Anna says the word. Abel is convinced there is a better way forward, one that won't require outright violence.

The rest of A Most Violent Year's wending plot plays much like a supposedly near boiling pot that is indeed being watched—not just by one entity, but by virtually everyone in the film. Abel is watching events spiral out of his nattily gloved hand's control. Anna is watching a husband perhaps unequal to the task at hand. Assistant District Attorney Lawrence is watching not just Abel, but the entire industry, keeping a scorecard of sorts as violence escalates and presumed criminal activity increases. Driver Julian is looking out for himself after Abel puts the kibosh on his drivers arming themselves in order to dissuade potential hijackers. Chandor moves these seemingly inartful pieces around on his cinematic chessboard surprisingly slowly at times, something that tends to actually increase tensions, since most audience members are going to be watching themselves, for some expected explosion of lunatic fury, an explosion which in fact more or less never materializes. Interestingly, aside from one visceral set piece involving Julian, A Most Violent Year tends to be a pretty talky enterprise, a proclivity it shares with Margin Call.

Many people have expressed a perhaps unavoidable opinion that Chandor seems to be channeling Sidney Lumet with this film. While it's true Chandor has an eye for gritty urban environments that does indeed evoke some of Lumet's pieces, Chandor's examination of claustrophobia, one of the central tenets of Lumet's oeuvre, is weirdly open aired when compared to the iconic director of yore. Lumet delighted in small, enclosed spaces, watching his characters scramble in them like trapped animals at times. Chandor's formulation seems to suggest that when a noose is tightening around you, it doesn't matter if you're holed up in a tiny flat or out in the wilds of Manhattan—the rope is going to cinch one way or the other.

J.C. Chandor is a force to be reckoned with, but for me personally at least, he's a largely intellectual force, not one that speaks to the heart or emotions. That tendency may slightly undercut this tale of a resolute and seemingly honorable man attempting to walk the straight and narrow path when fate seems to be conspiring to pull him into one detour after another. Isaac is a commanding presence throughout the film, giving it a necessary feeling of gravitas, but A Most Violent Year is almost an anti-thriller in a way, a film built out of anxiety rather than outright brutality (aside from those hijackings, anyway). Those who liked Margin Call will probably be more immediately in tune with Chandor's tendency to talk about issues rather than merely depict them. Suitably moody, and with an impressive production design nicely recreating the early eighties, A Most Violent Year won't be everyone's cup of tea, but for those with a certain amount of patience who also appreciate fine ensemble acting, it comes Recommended.

[CSW] -2.7- The mystery will keep a thinking person riveted. There was a real sense of foreboding and uneasiness throughout the film, that creepy, understated organ score heightened the tension of a man apparently trying so hard to stay clean in dirty world. Making this a moody film that builds to the point that contrary to the plot, you just wanna see bullets fly, regardless of who they hit. That need to lash out at injustice is not well satisfied in this film. While true to the heart of the story the ending is a little bit empty and frustrating.
[V4.0-A4.0] MPEG-4 AVC - No D-Box.



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