A Most Violent Year
Directed by: J.C. Chandor
Written by: J.C. Chandor
Starring: Oscar Isaac, Jessica Chastain, David Oyelowo, Alessandro Nivola, Albert Brooks, Elyas Gabel, Catalina Sandino Moreno, Peter Gerety, Christopher Abbott, Ashley Williams
Action/Crime/Drama/Thriller - 125 min Reviewed by Charlie Juhl on 14 Jan 2015
Written by: J.C. Chandor
Starring: Oscar Isaac, Jessica Chastain, David Oyelowo, Alessandro Nivola, Albert Brooks, Elyas Gabel, Catalina Sandino Moreno, Peter Gerety, Christopher Abbott, Ashley Williams
Action/Crime/Drama/Thriller - 125 min Reviewed by Charlie Juhl on 14 Jan 2015
Three films and each one better than the last one. Writer/director J.C. Chandor proves he was not a one-and-done flash in the pan, he was not a two-hit wonder, he is the real deal three-time quality film creator, this time with hands down one of 2014’s best films. The tension and suspense never takes a scene off; it builds and builds forming layers of calculated alarm and concern. All the drama, the head-in-hands befuddlement, and even the shouting and firearms stem from the most unlikely source, a heating oil land acquisition. From start to finish, A Most Violent Year will completely absorb your attention, show off top-notch writing and acting, and convincingly portrays 1981 New York City as cold, harsh, and intimidating.
Chandor pens his own brilliant screenplays. He wrote 2011’s near-indecipherable financial thriller Margin Call. He wrote a near-silent action film in 2013’s All Is Lost. Now he coherently takes us on a journey through the mob-infested home heating oil business in New York City. Take some time to consider how rare this is. There are a few, a slim few, directors making films nowadays who consistently author their own wide-ranging material on topics that have nothing in common. Many writers find their one theme and stick with it producing quality scripts but circling around similar themes. Chandor shows 2008’s financial collapse, a sinking boat in the middle of the Indian Ocean, and a businessman attempting to increase market share in competition with other oil middlemen, gangsters, the District Attorney, and his wife.
Chandor pens his own brilliant screenplays. He wrote 2011’s near-indecipherable financial thriller Margin Call. He wrote a near-silent action film in 2013’s All Is Lost. Now he coherently takes us on a journey through the mob-infested home heating oil business in New York City. Take some time to consider how rare this is. There are a few, a slim few, directors making films nowadays who consistently author their own wide-ranging material on topics that have nothing in common. Many writers find their one theme and stick with it producing quality scripts but circling around similar themes. Chandor shows 2008’s financial collapse, a sinking boat in the middle of the Indian Ocean, and a businessman attempting to increase market share in competition with other oil middlemen, gangsters, the District Attorney, and his wife.
Abel Morales (Oscar Isaac, 2013's Inside Llewyn Davis) is a self-made man; nobody handed this man anything. Abel owns his own heating oil distribution company, he moves his wife and two daughters into a very large and comfortable home in the suburbs, and he wants to run his life and business through honesty and integrity, two virtues in short supply in his racket. Abel stakes his entire savings and mortgages everything to purchase riverfront property which will catapult his firm to the top of the food chain. However, there are those who resent his quick rise and business acumen and they are determined to thwart Abel’s ambitions.
Or, is Abel just being paranoid? Where is the line between watching your back and convincing yourself everyone is out to get you? Yes, his competitors sometimes beat up his drivers and steal his product, but is it systemic aggression or just the costs of doing business in a crime-plagued metropolis? Is the DA’s office coming down hard on Abel inventing charges at the bidding of a political rival or is Abel’s business dirtier than he knows? Most concerning, is Abel’s wife, Anna (Jessica Chastain, 2014's The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby: Them), on the up-and-up or is she involved in side schemes running counter to Abel’s clean business and clean life declaration?
Chastain’s Anna eclipses imposing; she is downright frightening. She is a stay at home mother who also keeps the firm’s books but I for one believe her when she stares down her husband declaring he better fix their problems before she decides to get involved. When the prosecutor (David Oyelowo, 2014's Selma) stops by the house with a search warrant, the entire audience will shiver a bit when Anna waves her too-long fingernails in his face telling him in her New Jersey accent he has been “very disrespectful.” Everything we need to know about Anna’s character comes across when the family car strikes a deer late at night. Abel gets out and puzzles over if he should put the deer out of its misery and move it to the side of the road. Anna gets out and takes care of business in one second flat.
Oscar Isaac and Jessica Chastain are already known for their acting chops. Isaac was 2013’s Llewyn Davis and Chastain has tracked down Osama bin Laden and appeared in a dozen other recent successes. These two don’t look like a convincing married couple on the surface but put them in the same room and throw a marital argument in the mix and we are automatically convinced of their relationship. Perhaps their chemistry derives from earlier times; the two overlapped at Julliard.
Bravo to auteurs like J.C. Chandor; the cinema needs more of them. This gentleman knows what makes effective, quality film. He can nail you to your seat without car chases and gun battles. Pointed allegations and sweaty foreheads are just as threatening. A Most Violent Year appears bland on paper concerning a business owner maneuvering to increase market share and dodge the feds at the same time. His wife is anything but bland; her presence will freeze the room over. A Most Violent Year is tip of the spear distinguished filmmaking; make sure to take the time to find it.
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