“I have always taken the most right path”
- Abel Morales
The fate of this movie may be a prime example of the whims of zeitgeist.
Just like it sometimes feels a mega hit comes out of nowhere (see “American
Sniper”), so can a strong well made movie go nowhere for no particular reason.
Writer/Director J.C. Chandor’s third feature “A Most Violent Year” did not make
much money or garner a high number of award nominations (strikingly The
National Board of Review made it their movie of the year though it should be
noted that this designation happened before everyone else, including the
Oscars, completely ignored the film). Perhaps though this movie should not yet
be written to the dust heap. I have a feeling that the maker is so strong that
we might be discovering this ‘lost’ movie ten-twenty years from now. It is
further proof that Chandor is as versatile as he is competent. His first movie
was ‘Margin Call’ an intricately detailed and highly expository view of high
finance on the day of a stock market meltdown. His second movie was the exact
opposite. He ditched all the words and wrote a nearly silent movie about one
old man at sea named “All is Lost.” This time he switches direction again with
a period piece about a heating oil business under attack by rising crime in
1981. It looks and feels entirely different from his first two movies except
for the invisible sure hand of the director behind it. Sometimes when you see a
movie you can just sense the controlled confidence of a Director with a capital
‘D.’ Alfred Hitchcock movies have this feeling. So do Stanley Kubrick and
Christopher Nolan movies. The movies of young J.C. Chandor have this feeling as
well.
The story concerns an immigrant Abel Morales (Oscar Isaac) and his wife
Anna Morales (Jessica Chastain). Abel is on the verge of expanding his business
greatly by buying a refinery for his heating oil business. He has just given a
down payment of $40,000 and expects to close the deal with bank financing at
the end of the month. At the same time somebody has been hijacking his trucks
and selling his oil at a discounted rate to one of his competitors. At the same
time the district attorney (David Oyelowo) has started an investigation into
his company for complying with the standard industry practices which were
generally fraudulent. His wife, who has mob connections, does the books for his
company. His lawyer is played by Albert Brooks who has completed the
transformation from a young neurotic comedian to an old steely dramatic actor.
The man is a heavy now and fits in great with the last great character of this
movie, the brooding emptied out noir scape of 1980s New York City. I did not
live in NYC during this time but I’ve seen the movies that were made in the
early 1980s. One in particular, Escape From New York, imagined a future where
the island of Manhattan was transformed into a high security prison populated
entirely by criminals. People were not very optimistic back then and you can
feel it in this movie.
There is violence in “A Most Violent Year,” but it is portrayed in a way
that is almost never seen in movies. Whereas an action movie generally has
highly stylized set pieces that ignore many real world implications this movie dives right into the nitty gritty of real life. Take these plot points. There is
a discussion as to whether the drivers in the heating oil trucks should be
carrying firearms. This is a concern because if a driver shoots a gun on a
crowded highway, whether in self-defense or not, it has huge legal ramifications for the company. And if the
legal inquiries happen that may scare off the financing from the bank
that is central to the real estate deal. I wish action movies would take a look at how J.C. Chandor has made
this movie because the violence that takes
place albeit with fewer explosions has far more weight and suspense ingrained in it. There is even a car
chase in this movie, which simply does not feel like a regular car chase scene. It feels dangerous. For example, if they were to plow into a street
cart of fruit (which does not happen but does happen in every other movie with a car chase) you can bet that the owner of said
fruitcart would have a major part in the movie.
The look of the movie is where J.C. Chandor is being his most innovative
in this movie. “A Most Violent Year” follows the great cinematic tradition of
period pieces that present the world of the past through the film stock of
those years. If you are ever wondering why so many movies that take place pre
1960s are black and white or have at least some of the color drained out of
them, well we remember those decades that way because all the movies were black
and white. This is the same with the graininess of the 1970s. And here, the
advent of videotape with its over saturated reds and browns gives “A Most
Violent Year” its warm 1980s look. Certainly walking down the street in 1981
did not look like we see it in this movie but we remember it that way because
that’s how we recorded it back then. Oh and my favorite set piece is the NYC
subway completely overwritten with angry graffiti. That more than anything
represents what is known as the Bad Old Days.
The acting is great. Jessica Chastain as always fits in perfectly with
whatever she is doing. Oscar Isaac has the keen ability to look like someone
who no longer walks around the modern world. In fact, in one of his first major
roles he played a Roman Centurion (“Agora”). That sounds about right. I want to
see him in a movie where he plays the antagonist in some ancient battle against
Russell Crowe. It think he will do a very good job in his next movie that takes
place a long long time ago in a galaxy far far away.
Oh and I was a fan of the Jews, those Orthodox Jews that inhabit South
Williamsburg. Those are the guys that Abel does the real estate deal with. I
used to do real estate deals with those guys too. You can just tell that
anything that happens in NYC from the best to the worst, those guys are going
to be relatively unaffected by it. They have their own culture and they have it
for the long haul.
