A Most Violent Year (2014)

Film: A Most Violent Year (2014)
Stars: Oscar Isaac, Jessica  the , David Oyelowo, Alessandro Nivola, Albert Brooks
Director: JC Chandor
Oscar History: Despite numerous nods for Jessica Chastain across the board (including at the Globes), the film came up empty-handed with AMPAS.
Snap Judgment Ranking: 4/5 stars

Sometimes you go into a film not 100% sure where it's going to head and some films you go into it knowing exactly where it's going to lead.  These make up the vast majority of movies for me.  There is a third category, however, those that pull-the-rug-out and don't seem entirely what you expected, which was the case with JC Chandor's follow-up to All is Lost (which I hated) and Margin Call (which I loved).  It was a film that has all of the aura of something out of the 1980's or 90's, when mafia movies were still all-the-rage and frequently theaters saw gritty crime dramas, but in many ways recalls the low octane movies of the 1970's, all feeling and sense, not necessarily driving home even its biggest moments in an obvious way.  It was a nice change of pace, even if it wasn't the film I was anticipating when I entered the theater.

(Spoilers Ahead) The film takes place in the 1980's, where Abel Morales (Isaac) is the proprietor of a heating oil company, trying to expand his business by buying a factory on the East River while also attempting to hold off hijackings of his trucks.  Abel is the sort of man who resembles Michael Corleone more than Scarface-a man who is reluctant to take his operation into illegal waters, but is clearly destined to hit them if he wants to expand.  Abel gets himself involved in a tricky dealing where, thanks to a hijacking where his driver shoots back, he loses his money from the bank and has to try to find money in order to secure his factory (which he's put everything into), all the while dealing with the mob and a District Attorney (Oyelowo) who is certain he's been illegally avoiding taxes and embezzling.

The film is a nice return-to-form for Chandor, who came right out the gate with the multi-layered work of Margin Call, a film with myriad plotlines and characters being juggled, where traditional movie star structure didn't give you an obvious answer as to whom would be crushed and whom would survive.  I know most people liked All is Lost (I was in the minority there), but I feel like Chandor's strength lies in these delicately-balanced, finally plotted films, not in movies that lack character interaction and dialogue.  Most of this film is just that-there's only a pair of action set-pieces from my recollection, and both of them are weirdly character-building.  The film instead continues with strong monologue work from all-involved and a wonderfully-felt series of conversations, which slowly teach us about each character's intentions.  There are, in fact, rarely scenes with multiple characters-almost every moment is a duet, rather than a group scene or an act with many characters coming in-and-out.

This results in two amazing performances from the leads. Oscar Isaac, who has basically become one of my new obsessions in the past two years (between this and Inside Llewyn Davis) does something I didn't expect (like much of this movie): he gives us a new take on the "legitimate businessman," principally because that's what he is.  While others around him are in fact bringing down his operation's ethics, he's striving simply to live the American Dream.  There's a terrific soliloquy about halfway through the movie where he chastises a new employee for snickering at his earnestness, but he sells it in such a way that you almost believe him, and you realize that this is someone that is trying to work within the rules first, not work within them only.  It's not often that you see someone stumble and fall in the central role of a film through poor social interactions or through giving too much credit to those around him.  As a result, Isaac gives a performance that's mesmerizing, but doesn't follow traditional story beats.

The same can be said for Chastain, who is marvelous as his wife Anna.  Chastain knows how to use her newfound moxie as a star here, selling the big delivery and fight scenes with ownership of the camera-she knows what the audience is focused upon, and as a result we see someone who owns her giant moments (particularly that scene where she tells off Oyelowo's district attorney for not being "respectful," which would have been a quotable classic if more people had seen this movie).  She's also great in the quieter scenes, knowing that this is a character who works very hard to project a veneer, so hard that her few moments of truth even feel a bit rehearsed.  She, like Isaac's Abel, knows what it takes to win and is willing to do what it takes to ensure victory.

This is really one of the cruelest and most central arguments of A Most Violent Year: the have and have-not's.  The film's tragic figure is Julian, the young man who tries to defend himself when his truck is hijacked, and as a result marks himself for future failure.  He is surrounded by people like Abel, Anna, and David Oyelowo's District Attorney, the have's in this adventure whom life continually deals a strong hand, and the ending, unlike so many, doesn't result in a comeuppance for the characters who have been moving all of the chess pieces to their advantage, but instead with Julian dead at his own hand, realizing that no amount of effort can perhaps replace luck and ruthlessness, which is what is on the side of Abel and Anna.  It's a fascinating ending, shot wonderfully by Bradford Young.

All-in-all, it's sad but not puzzling why such a film, so wonderfully introverted, was such a Box Office disaster.  The movie is marketed as something we would have seen in the 90's with Robert de Niro, but it's really a tricky, realistic story about dreams and what we will push toward and sacrifice to make them a reality (that and its release structure was poison when it so clearly could have gone wide without issue).  The movie occasionally has side stories that don't quite sell (I liked Albert Brooks in this movie even if I didn't always get him, and occasionally the business deals turn a bit wonky), but those are minor quibbles for what is the best crime drama I've seen in years.  The fact that the Academy couldn't see that and give Isaac, Chastain, and Chandor's script a nomination is unfathomable.

Those are my thoughts on this criminally under-seen movie from 2014-what are yours?  Do you agree that this wasn't entirely what you expected when you started watching?  Do you also feel Oscar Isaac and Jessica Chastain should have been nominated?  And which JC Chandor film do you enjoy the best?  Share your thoughts in the comments!