J.C. Chandor was at the helm of one of the best films on the business world I've ever seen,
Margin Call (2011). It was a quiet, humanized look at players trying to save a huge company in the early days of the recent financial crisis. It did not demonize corporate types, as Hollywood yahoos usually do. Last night I had the privilege of viewing Chandor’s
A Most Violent Year (2014), courtesy of Netflix. It is as quiet and down to earth as a “gangster” flick will ever get. It is set in NYC in 1981, one of its most violent years. The opening scene follows the protagonist jogging through urban blight while Marvin Gaye’s magnificent
Inner City Blues plays on the soundtrack. This is the story of the honorable executive of an oil delivery company trying to remain moral in the face of the dark forces hijacking his trucks. Will he cave to the predatory instincts of a gangster, turning to his wife’s father, a don, for help, or will he continue to fight through the more benign predatory ways of a capitalist? I am an advocate of free market capitalism. Capitalism, especially at its highest levels, is about competition, outdoing rivals, and it's not for the faint of heart. Those who do it honorably, who assume great financial risk, are heroes who create personal wealth that trickles down to the rest of us in jobs, salary and benefits. It is not perfect because man is not perfect, but it is the best system ever created precisely because it demands the best from its practitioners. Of course, all have probably bent the rules at one time. Even those at the bottom of the economic scale have, albeit it in small ways. Oscar Isaac, a Guatemalan, stars as the soft-spoken Latino who has worked his way up from the street to success. The ubiquitous Jessica Chastain plays his spouse, a hardcore realist. Elyes Gabel, the star of TV’s
Scorpion, plays a driver with the same dreams as his boss. Albert Brooks plays an unscrupulous sleaze, a part he has mastered late in life, one far removed from his days in stand-up comedy. 35,000+ users at IMDb have rated the film, forging to a consensus of 7.1 of ten. On a scale of five, I rate it four. Don’t be fooled by the title. There is very little gun play in its two-hour running time. It is talky. It failed completely at the box office, which I hope doesn’t harm Chandor’s career, as he makes thoughtful, realistic work that is a refreshing break from most movies. Anyone expecting the usual bloodletting will be very disappointed.
My thanks to Albert, who pulled up to the Chase bank on a white scooter and bought
A Hitch in Twilight, and to the woman who bought the children's pictorial on dinosaurs, and the one who bought two books in Russian.
Vic's 3rd Novel: http://tinyurl.com/7e9jty3
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