A Most Violent Year Invokes Memories Of Many Great Classics

J.C. Chandor's been killing it since he burst onto the scene back in 2011 with Margin Call. A Most Violent Year is his next film of quality.

A Most Violent Year is an interesting take on the mafia mentality... or rather a completely new perspective. Because this isn't a mob movie. This is an anti-mob movie. Abel Morales (Oscar Isaac) is a power-hungry opportunist building an oil empire throughout the burrows of New York. But every step of the way he seems intent on staying fair and honest. Though the rest of the world seems to assume him a crook... and even his own wife Anna (Jessica Chastain) may not be a trustworthy partner in his attempts to keep things clean.

The cast is excellent. Oscar Isaac and Jessica Chastain both give exceptional performances worthy of any awards season. And while I feel like Albert Brooks gave one of his hammier performances in recent memory, his character seems well written enough to keep him on track throughout the film's run-time. David Oyelowo shows up once again this year. And I have to say, I'm becoming more interested in his career with each day. Between this and Selma he can mark 2014 down as a real victory.

But what J.C. Chandor has accomplished with this film goes far beyond the acting performances. He has proven that he can make a period piece in the style of old Hollywood, but still manages to bring modern sensibilities to the table... rather, he has proven that no one can box him into a corner and label him as just a "this kind" of director. And while last year's All Is Lost didn't really do it for me, I still can't say he's made a bad film. There's just too much good stuff to be taken from the three he's got... and between this and Margin Call, the other could be forgotten regardless.

A Most Violent Year is certainly on par with the best films of 2014 and well worth your time and money.

I Wanted To Like The Two Faces Of January...

...but I just couldn't get on board.

The thing is, I really like the people involved with this thing. And I don't necessarily think any of them did a bad job. Just, somehow, the basic premise was flawed from the start and nothing could really get going from there. At every turn it felt as though the script just copped out.

Relatively good performances by the three leads (Viggo Mortensen, Kirsten Dunst, and Oscar Isaac), not terrible direction by Hossein Amini, and pretty good camera work seemed desperately overshadowed by a general lack of planning on the part of... well Hossein Amini sort of shot himself in the foot by writing this script for himself to direct. And his choice of locations generally felt unfulfilling and distracting to everything else in the story. I could never tell where the characters were at any given time. So maybe it does fall on direction...

And I suppose this is a more flawed film than I initially wanted to let on. But it's the little mistakes here and there that could easily have been fixed to make a solid Third Man type of flick. Unfortunately for everyone involved, it feels less like that wonderful piece of cinema, and more like a compilation of weird cellphone pictures from a rather disjointed vacation with a few celebrities in them.

I don't want to say you shouldn't see this... but it generally missed the mark for me.

Getting Into Inside Llewyn Davis

Man did I love this movie.

Inside Llewyn Davis is as close as the Coen's have come to reconnecting with that amazing energy of Barton Fink (1991 Palm d'Or winner). But comparatively they couldn't be more different films at heart.

Where Barton is a total dumbass recycling one concept over and over and never really taking his work seriously, Llewyn is a mashup of the opposite... with surprisingly similar results. That's a big piece of what makes this film kind of heartbreaking. The struggle of being an artist with integrity can so easily be strained by the nature of business. Llewyn seeks to be understood but faces a sea of careerists, businessmen, and half-empty have-nots... never really finding a way out of the perpetual cycle that has become his existence.

Effectively, the Coen brothers have put together one of their finest films of the last ten years.

They had the presence of mind to bring back John Goodman in a bizarre but crucial role. And of course he delivered. John Goodman is one of those actors who just never seems to get enough credit... no matter how much praise he does get. I mean, how does this guy not have an Oscar??

Oscar Isaac was brilliantly cast as the titular character. He drives this one home and sticks the landing bring with him a truth and emotional depth that couldn't have existed had he not already been so musically talented in his own right.

I love Carey Mulligan, and while we didn't get a lot of her here, I think we got enough. Her part was interesting in that dynamic that perhaps she is existing as something she is not. It layers the character with a dimension of inconsistency... though she is frequently attempting to stay on that one plain of constant annoyance. When she eventually stops yelling she really shines through. And I appreciated the casting of Justin Timberlake in a very meta role. I do wonder if he understands the movie's message, but the fact is he really doesn't need to. In many ways, it's probably better that he doesn't.

I could talk giddy about the Coen brothers for hours, possibly days, based on their body of work up to this point. So it only pleases me more to be able to say "they've done it again." Keep doing what you do guys.