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DVD Review: A Most Violent Year

Danilo Castro

Self-made businessman Abel Morales (Oscar Isaac) is riding high. As a Puerto Rican success story in 1981, he’s got a thriving business, spiffy threads, and a wife (Jessica Chastain) that’d put Michelle Pfeiffer’s Elvira to shame. He’s achieved it all with a moral code that remains ironclad amidst the city’s growing crime rate. That is, until hijackers A Most Violent Year Blu-raybegin putting his oil trucks at risk. The police won’t step in, the drivers are helpless, and a federal indictment on the way puts a huge business transaction on hold. As far as integrity goes, this obstacle course is going to be a doozy.

A Most Violent Year is not a lightweight affair. Director J.C. Chandor, fresh off a pair of gut wrenchingly acclaimed dramas in Margin Call (2011) and All Is Lost (2013), maintains an intensely old school approach that’s quickly becoming a trademark. Margin Call borrowed heavily from the ensemble wizardry of David Fincher, while All Is Lost often found itself steeped in Terrence Malick territory. Here, Chandor channels yet another influential vanguard: Sidney Lumet.

His nicotine stained New York captures a gutter classiness that harkens strongly to the days of Lumet crime dramas like Serpico (1973) and Prince Of The City (1980). And it works fantastically given the context and historical setting. That’s not to say Chandor rests on his influenced laurels, however, as the white knuckle subway chase between Morales and a perpetrator marks one of the most riveting sequences in recent memory – and one of the few times the film unleashes it’s controlled anger. As a whole, A Most Violent Year bubbles so intensely without spilling over that you’ll find yourself clenching your seat during something as monotonous as Morales advising his salesmen. In today’s climate of impatient immediacy, it’s quite an achievement.

Chandor’s nuanced approach is met with equally detailed acting. David Oyelowo steals his scenes as a district attorney with an unclear agenda, erasing any traces of reliability that made his Martin Luther King, Jr. such a triumph. The same can be said for the rest of a supporting cast that includes Albert Brooks, Alessandro Nivola, and Catalina Sandino Moreno. But all performers take a back seat to the core leads of Jessica Chastain and Oscar Isaac. The onscreen couple carries the lion’s share of what ends up being an acting clinic, complete with one emotionally draining scene after another.

Chastain, fresh off saving the world in Interstellar, is a spitfire piece of work that carves out the film’s most in-your-face acting. It helps that she’s given some of the script’s nastier lines (“You’re not gonna like what happens once I get involved”), but even without the verbal assistance her performance soars. Especially when paired against her tonally opposite husband. Landing somewhere between a young Andy Garcia and Godfather-era Al Pacino, Isaac’s Morales commands every frame of screen time through his chiseled composure and magnetic presence. The struggle to maintain morality in a grey world is harrowing, and Abel’s eyes express this haunting tension magnificently.

A Most Violent Year slipped through the cracks of mainstream recognition last year, no doubt a result of its quiet rollout and lack of glamour. But don’t let its small scale deter your interest. In pairing a brilliant cast with one of Hollywood’s best kept secrets; this riveting drama is a diamond in the rough waiting to be discovered.

DVD Bonus Material:

The DVD pressing offers a crisp presentation of cinematographer Bradford Young’s moody metropolis. Featurettes on the making of the film also do an exemplary job of bypassing typical extras fluff for some real insight into the filmmaking process. Coupled with deleted scenes and a thorough commentary from Chandor and his producers (available on the Blu-Ray release), A Most Violent Year makes for a most excellent addition to your personal movie collection.

Danilo Castro

Freelance writer with an affinity for all things film. But if it's not, that's okay too. Contributor to multiple publications and editor of the Film Noir Archive blog when he's not spending his time watching movies.
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