Brilliantly written and competently directed by J. C. Chandor, A Most Violent Year is an understated business drama playing in a mob-like world of gritty family businesses with few holds barred in the melting pot of the streets of New York. Oscar Isaac, Jessica Chastain and Albert Brooks are given particularly interesting roles and reward their screenwriter/director with outstanding performances.
It is 1981. Abel Morales (Oscar Isaac) is an immigrant from Columbia who has made good in the competitive mafia-ish heating fuel business in New York. In the process has married Anna (Jessica Chastain), the bosses daughter and taken over the business. Now he is about to make a major move risking his financial and social capital to lift the business to a new level. The last thing he needs is trouble, but the not so cosy semi-cartel of competitors is unhappy with this slightly less corruptible member of their clan, who doesn’t quite want to belong. And the ambitious New York City district attorney (David Oyelowo) smells blood in the water, an opportunity for pouncing on Abel’s business at this delicate moment of vulnerability. Luckily Abel can rely on his tough, street-wise loyal wife and his calm and wise chief financial officer (Albert Brooks)– or can he?
Brilliantly written and competently directed by J. C. Chandor, A Most Violent Year is an understated business drama playing in a mob-like world of gritty family businesses with few holds barred in the melting pot of the streets of New York. Here petty crime is part of doing business and can too easily escalate into something more sinister. Chandor marvellously captures time (1980s) and New York/New Jersey and milieu, the mob-ish heating fuel business. As the great defender of the market-economics Adam Smith already warned, businesses will always have a tendency to circumvent the forces of competition by semi-illegally erecting barriers and agreeing territories and prices. The consumer loses out. So for the market mechanism to work the State has to enforce it; but to function the State needs to collect taxes and resist the gravitational forces of corruption. This leads to a clash of interests playing out dangerously across the varying moral codes of the different stakeholders.
Strong acting performances throughout, but Oscar Isaac, Jessica Chastain and Albert Brooks are given particularly interesting roles and reward their screenwriter/director with outstanding performances. Thoroughly satisfying business-drama/thriller with less mindless violence than the title suggests.
It is 1981. Abel Morales (Oscar Isaac) is an immigrant from Columbia who has made good in the competitive mafia-ish heating fuel business in New York. In the process has married Anna (Jessica Chastain), the bosses daughter and taken over the business. Now he is about to make a major move risking his financial and social capital to lift the business to a new level. The last thing he needs is trouble, but the not so cosy semi-cartel of competitors is unhappy with this slightly less corruptible member of their clan, who doesn’t quite want to belong. And the ambitious New York City district attorney (David Oyelowo) smells blood in the water, an opportunity for pouncing on Abel’s business at this delicate moment of vulnerability. Luckily Abel can rely on his tough, street-wise loyal wife and his calm and wise chief financial officer (Albert Brooks)– or can he?
Brilliantly written and competently directed by J. C. Chandor, A Most Violent Year is an understated business drama playing in a mob-like world of gritty family businesses with few holds barred in the melting pot of the streets of New York. Here petty crime is part of doing business and can too easily escalate into something more sinister. Chandor marvellously captures time (1980s) and New York/New Jersey and milieu, the mob-ish heating fuel business. As the great defender of the market-economics Adam Smith already warned, businesses will always have a tendency to circumvent the forces of competition by semi-illegally erecting barriers and agreeing territories and prices. The consumer loses out. So for the market mechanism to work the State has to enforce it; but to function the State needs to collect taxes and resist the gravitational forces of corruption. This leads to a clash of interests playing out dangerously across the varying moral codes of the different stakeholders.
Strong acting performances throughout, but Oscar Isaac, Jessica Chastain and Albert Brooks are given particularly interesting roles and reward their screenwriter/director with outstanding performances. Thoroughly satisfying business-drama/thriller with less mindless violence than the title suggests.
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