A MOST VIOLENT YEAR
Starring Oscar Isaac, Jessica Chastain
Directed by JC Chandor
Changing creative direction for the third time in as many features, JC Chandor displays an astonishing sure-footedness. After setting his narratives in confined spaces in both the Mamet-esque ensemble piece Margin Call and survival thriller All Is Lost, Chandor adopts a broader canvas for A Most Violent Year, a crime drama that’s equally bruising and perceptive. Seemingly shot through a smoke-stained lens, it immerses us in the gritty milieu of 1981 New York City, taking us into its backrooms, barbershops, offices, subway stations, restaurants, rail yards, freeways, tenements and palatial estates.
It’s on these fronts that Abel Morales (Oscar Isaac) wages a campaign to secure his share of the American Dream. Cut from the same cloth as Scorsese’s upwardly mobile immigrants, Abel also has an affinity with There Will Be Blood’s ambitious oilman. However, in Abel’s case, he’s amassed a small fortune through a successful heating oil distribution company. But as he’s entering a critical period of expansion, his trucks are hijacked and salesmen assaulted. And yet, somehow it’s his business practices that the authorities are investigating. As a competitor suggests, “It’s a tough market.”
Professing to follow “the path that is most right,” Abel staunchly refuses to acknowledge how the sausage gets made and is consequently put through the grinder by both his formidable adversaries and cold-blooded wife (Jessica Chastain). Inside Llewyn Davis’ Isaac is once again riveting as a man forced to reconcile his ideals with economic realities. And when he’s pushed past his breaking point, there’s an exhilarating catharsis to the breathtaking seven-minute chase sequence that ensues but also a sober acknowledgement that he’s shedding legitimacy with every frenzied stride.
In the process, Chandor confirms that he’s the real deal.
