Director: JC Chandor
Talent: Oscar Isaac, Jessica Chastain, David Oyelowo, Albert Brooks
Release Date: 23rd January 2015
Sort of like a fairy-tale for small business owners, A Most Violent Year is the story of a month in the life of a small time fuel-supplier and good man trying to strike it big in New York City, 1981, and all the moral compromises and concessions that process requires. That man is Abel Morales (Oscar Isaac): his oil is clean, his employees are polite and his service is the best in town. It’s hard not to see the parallels between the narrative and the career of writer-director JC Chandor, and his monotonous, prestige cineplex product. It’s also hard to care. Rather than the violence of capitalist socio-economic relations, the ‘violence’ of the title refers to the truck-jackings that hamper Abel’s business’ growth prospects. This is a film that confuses being silent for thinking, business acumen for morality, and a month for a year. Stop JC Chandor.
Words: Oisín Murphy-Hall
