A Most Violent Year

Started by Mel, September 19, 2014, 03:21:13 AM

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Mel

Directed by J. C. Chandor
Starring: Oscar Isaac, Jessica Chastain, Alessandro Nivola, David Oyelowo, Albert Brooks, Catalina Sandino Moreno

Synopsis:

A thriller set in New York City during the winter of 1981, statistically one of the most violent years in the city's history, and centered on a the lives of an immigrant and his family trying to expand their business and capitalize on opportunities as the rampant violence, decay, and corruption of the day drag them in and threaten to destroy all they have built.

Teaser:

Simple mind - simple pleasures...

Pwaybloe

Meh. Just not working for me.

Punch

"oh you haven't truly watched a film if you didn't watch it on the big screen" mumbles the bourgeois dipshit

jenkins

me, i woulda mentioned it. but the lowery touch is an invisible force, that's the charm

this is with the dp from atbs, who also shot pariah e.g., and the data makes me more interested in seeing this movie, simply

jenkins

QuoteIs that hard to accomplish with digital photography?

No, it's a lot easier. It's so much more comfortable.

You think so?

Yeah. For me it's a lot more comfortable, which actually just helps me go a little bit further. Some of the stuff I was doing with shadows in "A Most Violent Year" are things that I wanted to do in "Ain't Them Bodies Saints" but just was a little timid to do, because we were exposing film. It just gives you that little confidence to go a little darker because you're seeing what you're getting. And obviously the approach is different, the sort of ethos and how you approach it, but the result is kind of the same. I just feel like with digital you can be a bit more radical with it. That's just my feeling.

Yeah. I tend to ask about that in these interviews and you always get the level-headed assessment from DPs.

Right! [Laughs.]

They're not digging in to take some stand. It's just about the tools.

Yeah. I'm a big fan of the digital thing. I think it's changing the way we work, you know? I feel like it's given me a lot more confidence to go further, and that's nice. It's nice to have your head in the game for other things and not have to worry about, "Is it going to come out" and "Will there be no image at all?"

http://www.hitfix.com/in-contention/bradford-young-on-the-responsibility-of-selma-and-growing-up-on-a-most-violent-year

Alexandro

If Sidney Lumet was a genre, this would fit right in there. The film kind of reminded me to Prince of the City, with it's claustrophobic atmosphere of corruption. Every scene, character, set, wardrobe and certainly performance tell you this is a place where corruption has been the norm for a while. And there's this guy at the center, who's determined to stand his ground.

I love Jessica Chastain and I will se everything she does. Pacino said once that when he saw her for the first time on stage he felt he was seeing Marlon Brando. She's always superb in everything. She's the female PSH or something. But no one is behind her here.

I miss adult urban dramas like this one, and I guess I miss this fucked up adult behavior of people smoking everywhere and being badass and taking gritty reality as it is; without Iphones and twitter and politically correct fears...yeah, I enjoyed it.

Gold Trumpet

Agree with much of what Alexandro says above. It's a great craftmanship work and plays out very well. Lumet definitely would have enjoyed this film and while I was watching it, I kept thinking, how simple changes to most films can really change a lot. A Most Violent Year had the perfect restraint toward its subject.

Also highly agree on Jessica Chastain. What she did in Miss Julie was amazing and I'm surprised her performance wasn't more lauded, but I recommend anyone watch that film is they want a defining and benchmark performance.

03

agree with gt. pretty good stuff