A Most Violent Year

I read the Dune series in high school and was blown away. I remember watching the sci fi show as well as the David Lynch film growing up and thinking to myself years later that I hope they find another talented director to really make a trilogy or series. After True Detective season 1 and the first 3 seasons Game of Thrones came out a small part of me hoped HBO would pick it up and fund it. Im afraid to let the hype grow within me, but wth Denis past work (especially Bladerunner 2049) and the other actors hired for this film I haven't been this excited for a film to come out in awhile. I'm excited for his vision...

It hasn't been mentioned on this sub but recently watched this gem. Don't know how I missed it. If you want something off-beat, well directed and great performances, I absolutely suggest this movie.

PS: the title is a bit misleading.

I absolutely loved it. It's a slow burn, but it's definitely worth your time. Oscar Isaac knocks it out of the park as usual, as do Jessica Chastain and Albert Brooks. The cinematography is gorgeous and the film deals with some big ideas if you watch closely. It's a shame the Academy didn't give this more attention.

I've seen it already twice and it's just amazing. Smart script, great directing, beautiful cinematography, amazing actors etc. It has it all. Why it's gone so relatively unnoticed?

Hey. So I watched A Most Violent Year last night courtesy of Kanopy (highly recommend this service if you have access to a US or Canadian library account) and I really enjoyed it. There will be spoilers below, just fyi.

I feel like it's a pretty surprising film. It starts slow and about half an hour in, I found myself wondering if I wanted to keep going or switch to another film but I'm glad I stuck it out. It's a really rewarding character study of a man under pressure from all sides, even from within his home. I really enjoyed seeing Isaac play this man who's trying so hard to get a real foothold in an industry that is vastly corrupt without resorting to the typical tactics that are expected of him. He conveys the weariness, the anxiety and the simmering anger that his character is trying so desperately to hold in so well. I also enjoyed the way the film allows you to see how he shifts into different versions of himself as he interacts with different people - he's the most candid and antagonistic but also vulnerable with his wife, he's tough but supportive to his employees, he's cajoling and gives off the impression of sincerity when he goes to see Julian's girlfriend? sister? and he's respectful but firm with the DA.

I thought the film did a great job of showing that Abel also tries so hard to be better than his competitors because he knows that they see him as an outsider and an interloper. The film weaves race into its narrative without making it overt. I found it fascinating how he refused to speak in Spanish with Julian at work but then switched into it when he goes to see Julian's girlfriend (???) and he does so because he needs to put her at ease and make her believe he really wants to help. It's also made clear that all of his competitors, in addition to being run by the grandchildren and children of the original founders, they're all white and he of course is not. It seemed to me that the film made it pretty clear that his competitors had all collectively decided to try to screw him over and put him out of business. Was that your reading of it too?

I also liked Jessica Chastain in her role as his wife. She isn't as central a figure as I expected - it's really his story - but I thought she was great as a woman who grew up around violence and who believes that there is a time and a place for it. I really believed her when she threatened to take matters in her own hands and was surprised that ultimately she has little to do with denouement of the film. She does reveal that she's been skimming off the top of the company's funds (and that really wasn't surprising to me) but I felt like the great betrayal that Abel feels from her is less about that and more about the fact that she doesn't seem to understand what he's trying to do or why he's trying to do things the right way. At the same time, I also felt that it was a little naive of him to expect her to be someone other than who she was. Like you married a gangster's daughter, dude. What did you expect?

Ultimately it's a very, very simple story but it managed to create a real pressure cooker environment where it feels like something terrible could happen at any moment. The sense of dread really permeated every moment of the film and even though Abel gets what he wanted in the end, it's not at all on his own terms and he is greatly diminished by the effort - in debt up to his eyeballs to his competitors and feeling that he can't even trust his own wife. And yet to Julian, it still looks like Abel's on top of the world because he doesn't see all the wheeling and dealing it took for him to get there. It has some lovely cinematography - interesting angles at times - and a fantastic soundtrack too.

Anyway I'm not here to say that A Most Violent Year is a forgotten masterpiece, just that it's a good film that I would recommend and that I'd be happy to further discuss it.

Most People Actually Said This Film Was A Hidden Gem, even Jessica Chastain wanted a sequel for the film. If you like the film and wanted to continue Abel and Anna's story, how would you've dealt with it.

My Idea is this:

In 1983, Abel succeeds w/ his oil business in NYC being well performed, He seeks to expand to California and Nevada to make it bigger. However, when Abel realizes the fact that Anna's father hired the hijackers to tarnish his business, Abel testifies and he knew someone hired the hijackers. However, Abel is warned by Anna's Father's Men to not testify or he dies. Due to this, Anna stages a war on her own crime family and is killed. Abel's business plans are now mixed when he becomes a vengeful hunter and helping DA Lawrence along with his partner Det. James Nero to capture every member of Anna's Father's men and incarcerate them.

There would also be a twist in here that ironically in the conversations of Abel and DA Lawrence and Det. Nero, Abel would sound like a mobster that has a plan of revenge yet is on the law's side. Indicating his change on how the people who helped him (in the first film, who have mob connections or are mobsters themselves) are starting to put an affect on Abel himself sounding dangerous.

I would also add this film to be about the character development of Abel from a Non Violent and Careful Businessman to a Vengeful Bounty Hunter type of guy who gets mixed in the cycle of revenge.

New Cast Members Added (Not By Order) :

Christian Bale

Leonardo DiCaprio

Christopher Walken

Andy Garcia

Tom Hardy

Amy Adams

Katherine Langford

Pedro Pascal

The most immediately noticeable aspects of "A Most Violent Year" are the cold atmospherics: The film is set in the winter of 1981 New York City, and it plays up both the visual and mood elements of that cold to the maximum.

In addition to the very beautiful scenery (one scene on a frozen field with a spooky purple sky overhead and the skyscrapers of Manhattan in the background is especially memorable), the characters, cinematography, and script are also quite on the icy side - all to the good of the film.

Despite the seemingly action-oriented title, A Most Violent Year is a most understated film. The main character, played by Oscar Isaac in a role that seems destined for an Academy Award, exudes calm, controlled power far larger than his immediate presence. Rather than shouting matches, the interpersonal conflicts play out in gloomy exchanges. Rather than choreographed violence, that which does occur is (mostly) anticlimactic, reflecting a frigid realism.

However, there are moments of genuine pulse-pounding thrill. A car chase in particular, and the ensuing foot chase are filmed in a remarkably unusual way that emphasizes the dimensionality and color of the surroundings while sharply communicating the vulnerability of both the pursuer and the pursued.

The film is simply realistic, and yet also profound. Despite looking like he could play one of the most convincing gangsters ever seen on film, Isaac's character is actually a normal person who just happens to be abnormally driven. Yet at no point does he fall into cliche - he is not the good man driven to extreme lengths, or the hero who compromises his principles: He is perfectly at home in the grey, while still maintaining his soul and character.

It is a very strange and engaging film where the adage about character being destiny is played out. Despite being awash in all the elements of a gangster movie, none of them actually occur. Instead we are left simply with a set of human beings, several of them quite powerful to watch, as one of them tries to accomplish something.

The easy way is never taken, reflecting the protagonist's own determination to get what he wants the right way. Everywhere that decades of insulting Hollywood cliches have told you the character would do one thing, instead he does something different, confronting the audience with the degeneracy of its own expectations and of the general state of filmmaking.

This is a film that needs to be seen, at least once.

(Edit: Apparently A Most Violent Year was released last year, right on the cusp of eligibility for the prior Academy Awards, and was thus ignored and is ineligible for this year. Absurd.)

• Synopsis

  • In 1981 New York, a fuel supplier (Oscar Isaac) tries to adhere to his own moral compass amid the rampant violence, corruption and decay that threaten his family and his business.

• Cast

  • Oscar Isaac as Abel Morales

  • Jessica Chastain as Anna Morales

  • Alessandro Nivola as Peter Forente

  • David Oyelowo as Lawrence

  • Albert Brooks as Andrew Walsh

• Crew

  • J. C. Chandor (writer and director)

  • Bradford Young (cinematographer)

  • Ron Patane (editor)

  • Alex Ebert (score)

• Where to Watch

  • (check if your university or library gives you access!)

  • Rent on Amazon Prime, iTunes, etc.

Feel free to use the comment thread below for discussion, and/or join our As always, BEWARE SPOILERS!

NEXT WEEK: Son of a Gun dir. Julius Avery