A MOST VIOLENT YEAR

GRADE: A+
Starring Oscar Isaac, Jessica Chastain, Albert Brooks
Written and Directed by J.C . Chandor
Rated R (profanity, violence, adult themes)
Reviewed by Paul Gibbs

To start with, A Most Violent Year is not the film the title will likely invoke in your mind. It sounds like a Scorsese or even Tarrantino style epic with people getting shot in the head and splattering brains all over the landscape every 5 minutes. But in this case, "violent" is meant by real world standards, not movie standards, and it refers to something much more low key, primarily intimidation. There's not much in the way of gunplay or mayhem. If that disappoints you, this probably isn't your kind of film. In fact, it's so low key that it's easy to imagine many audiences getting bored. But Writer/director J.C. Candor (Margin Call, All Is Lost) has created a film that evokes the best works of the late, great Sidney Lumet (Serpico, Dog Day Afternoon) through its measured, disciplined and real-life resonant portrayal of a had-working immigrant businessman struggling to maintain his success and integrity in a world where his competition will stop at nothing.

Oscar Isaac (if you don't know him now from Inside Llewyn Davis, you'll know him soon from Star Wars: The Force Awakens) stars as Abel Morales, owner of a small, family-operated oil shipyard in New York, 1981. Abel's trucks have been getting hijacked, and he suspects that his corrupt competition is trying to force him out of business. He has only 30 days to make a payment or he loses everything. Abel's wife Anna (Jessica Chastain) is as tough and determined as he is, though as the daughter of a mobster, her moral code may be a little more flexible than his. Isaac, Chastain and Albert Brooks (as abel's attorney) give performers which were unfairly over looked for Oscar nominations, as was Chandor for his writing and directing (I personally found this film more honest and compelling than current star of the moment American Sniper). This is a film that overcomes the indulgent, over-the-top and formulaic tendencies which are, sadly, just as common in today's indie films as they are in Hollywood fare (these days either self-consciously quirky comedy/dramas or Tarrantino imitators seem to make up 90% of what is offered). Chandor stubbornly refuses to give in to unnecessary showiness or excess, keeping it real from beginning to end. While it may not fit everyone's taste, A Most Violent Year was the sort of movie that left me feeling electrified by it's sheer skill, subtlety and filmmaking disciple. It's a film that left me excited about the independent film world in a way I very rarely am.

A Most Violent Year is rated R for profanity and violence, but again, nowhere near as much as you probably would expect.