Live By Night - directed by Ben Affleck
Starring: Ben Affleck, Elle Fanning, Zoe Saldana, Chris Cooper, Brendan Gleeson, Sienna Miller, Chris Messina, Titus Welliver, Scott Eastwood, Max Casella, Clark Gregg, Anthony Michael Hall, Derek Mears, Matthew Maher, Remo Garone, Robert Glenister, Miguel J Pimentel
Early word on Ben Affleck's fourth outing as director was not promising.
I read stories of delays to the release date amid poor test screenings.
Reviews were mixed to say the least.
But with each of his last three movies as director the quality got progressively better and better culminating in a batch of Oscars for "Argo".
Benefit of the doubt and a fair trial surely earned then?
The trailer looked pretty good to me and as it turns out the final movie is not bad at all either.
Affleck again both stars and directs in this tale of prohibition, gangsters, gambling, dames, dudes and the violence that often surrounds these things.
Set in 1920's Boston Affleck stars as Joe a World War 1 veteran disillusioned with men in power using men like him so he becomes an armed robber.
He and his two cohorts do well enough until he decides to rob a bank to fund a relocation to California with his girlfriend Emma (Sienna Miller).
Three policemen are killed during the getaway and Emma who is the mistress of Irish mob boss Albert White betrays Joe.
He is badly beaten and almost killed by Albert but thanks to the intervention of his policeman Father (Brendan Gleeson) he is spared and serves three years in prison on a minor charge rather than a longer one for his part on the deaths of the police officers.
Joe is told that Emma is dead and decides that working for the Irishman's rival the Italian mob boss Maso Pescatore (Remo Garone) will afford him a good opportunity to seek revenge on their mutual enemy.
So he moves to Florida to run Pescatore's booze business with his surviving robber buddy Dion (Chris Messina)
The movie has been running for about thirty minutes by this point and already it has revealed both its strengths and its weaknesses.
On the positive side is a strong sense of style and period and some terrific action.
Affleck knows how to shoot a movie and he does another great job here.
With his last three films he proved his skill at directing everything from drama to suspense to tragedy to action and this film gives him plenty of opportunity to do so again with all of these things.
There is a terrific car chase after the bank robbery and an earlier, smaller robbery showed a deft directing hand with setting up a character for payoff soon after when his inside man is revealed.
The casting is impressive too with Gleeson and Miller's characters clashing in delightfully caustic fashion.
However it is Affleck's lead character that is the weak link.
Joe seems poorly formed.
His motivations seem muddled.
He refused to work for Pescatore initially s he claimed not to be a gangster but after news of Emma's death he eagerly took up the role to get his revenge on Albert.
But for much of the movie it is as if he totally forgot that Albert existed.
We are told that he has cleaned the competition up and is totally in charge of the illegal booze business but there is no real sense of how he did it.
Joe does come up against some nasty Ku Klux Klan members one of which decides to shoot up and bomb several of Joes establishments in protest at the mere 10% of the takings deal he is offered to behave himself.
His handling of these scumbags is wonderful to watch but still I never got the sense that he had done much to impress his boss.
Another case in point is Elle Fanning's Loretta the wannabe actress daughter of local police chief Irving Figgis (Chris Cooper).
She moves to Los Angeles but becomes addicted to heroin and Joe obtains some sordid photos of her with which he bribes her Father for information.
When the born again Loretta gets right in the way of the casino that is vital to Joe impressing Pescatore and keeping him alive he goes very soft on her.
The intention is to show the conflict within Joe - will he go further down the path to violent crime or will he find redemption in the arms of his new love Graciela played by a sizzlingly sexy Zoe Saldana.
Maybe it has a lot to do with Affleck and my perception of him and the characters he typically plays but I didn't ever really see him as a bad guy - not remotely.
Affleck's own script based on Dennis Lehane's book of the same name can also be cumbersome on occasion and heavy handed.
The mobsters White and Pescatore are little more than movie cliche mobsters and we've seen the sidekick character that Messina plays a hundred times before.
Regardless I had a lot of fun with this film and Affleck directed the hell out of it.
Thanks to the great Robert Richardson it is also a fantastic looking film.
Richardson has been DP on the likes of "Shutter Island", "Kill Bill", "The Hateful Eight" and "Hugo".
Affleck makes great use of the brilliant cinematographer both in subtle ways and in grander ones.
Smartly he chooses some lingering close ups on Elle Fanning's lovely face in a scene that makes full use of her expressiveness.
During an early scene there is a nicely connected series of long tracking shots.
Best of all - there is a stonking gun fight action sequence towards the end that bodes well for the rumoured Batman flick that Affleck is rumoured to be writing and directing.
"Live By Night" isn't a perfect film or even a particularly great one but it is plenty good.
Perhaps it is Afflecks own high bar that worked against it in a lot of critics minds.
"Gone Baby Gone" was a brilliant debut film, "The Town" was phenomenal and "Argo" truly superb.
With "Live By Night" he hasn't again surpassed his previous efforts and I would argue that this is his weakest film so far.
But I liked it a lot and if this counts as a disappointment it is only a comparative one.
"Live By Night" is still a great endorsement for Affleck the director.
I suspect that history will show this film to have been far too harshly judged by many.
RATING: 79 / 100
CONCLUSION: Maybe its Affleck the director's weakest film but to be fair his own benchmark was pretty high. His work in the chair is top notch and there is plenty to love about this film. A fine, highly enjoyable movie that has more than enough high points to make up for its minor weaknesses.
Screenplay: Ben Affleck
Music Score by: Harry Gregson-Williams
Cinematography: Robert Richardson
Edited by: William Goldenberg
Running Time: 129 minutes
Language: English
Rated: R16 - Strong gun violence, medium Profanity & sex scenes
Running Time: 129 minutes
Language: English
Rated: R16 - Strong gun violence, medium Profanity & sex scenes
Early word on Ben Affleck's fourth outing as director was not promising.
I read stories of delays to the release date amid poor test screenings.
Reviews were mixed to say the least.
But with each of his last three movies as director the quality got progressively better and better culminating in a batch of Oscars for "Argo".
Benefit of the doubt and a fair trial surely earned then?
The trailer looked pretty good to me and as it turns out the final movie is not bad at all either.
Affleck again both stars and directs in this tale of prohibition, gangsters, gambling, dames, dudes and the violence that often surrounds these things.
Set in 1920's Boston Affleck stars as Joe a World War 1 veteran disillusioned with men in power using men like him so he becomes an armed robber.
He and his two cohorts do well enough until he decides to rob a bank to fund a relocation to California with his girlfriend Emma (Sienna Miller).
Three policemen are killed during the getaway and Emma who is the mistress of Irish mob boss Albert White betrays Joe.
He is badly beaten and almost killed by Albert but thanks to the intervention of his policeman Father (Brendan Gleeson) he is spared and serves three years in prison on a minor charge rather than a longer one for his part on the deaths of the police officers.
Joe is told that Emma is dead and decides that working for the Irishman's rival the Italian mob boss Maso Pescatore (Remo Garone) will afford him a good opportunity to seek revenge on their mutual enemy.
So he moves to Florida to run Pescatore's booze business with his surviving robber buddy Dion (Chris Messina)
 |
| Ben Affleck, Chris Messina and Chris Cooper |
On the positive side is a strong sense of style and period and some terrific action.
Affleck knows how to shoot a movie and he does another great job here.
With his last three films he proved his skill at directing everything from drama to suspense to tragedy to action and this film gives him plenty of opportunity to do so again with all of these things.
There is a terrific car chase after the bank robbery and an earlier, smaller robbery showed a deft directing hand with setting up a character for payoff soon after when his inside man is revealed.
The casting is impressive too with Gleeson and Miller's characters clashing in delightfully caustic fashion.
However it is Affleck's lead character that is the weak link.
Joe seems poorly formed.
His motivations seem muddled.
He refused to work for Pescatore initially s he claimed not to be a gangster but after news of Emma's death he eagerly took up the role to get his revenge on Albert.
But for much of the movie it is as if he totally forgot that Albert existed.
We are told that he has cleaned the competition up and is totally in charge of the illegal booze business but there is no real sense of how he did it.
 |
| Brendan Gleeson, Remo Garone and Sienna Miller |
His handling of these scumbags is wonderful to watch but still I never got the sense that he had done much to impress his boss.
Another case in point is Elle Fanning's Loretta the wannabe actress daughter of local police chief Irving Figgis (Chris Cooper).
She moves to Los Angeles but becomes addicted to heroin and Joe obtains some sordid photos of her with which he bribes her Father for information.
When the born again Loretta gets right in the way of the casino that is vital to Joe impressing Pescatore and keeping him alive he goes very soft on her.
The intention is to show the conflict within Joe - will he go further down the path to violent crime or will he find redemption in the arms of his new love Graciela played by a sizzlingly sexy Zoe Saldana.
Maybe it has a lot to do with Affleck and my perception of him and the characters he typically plays but I didn't ever really see him as a bad guy - not remotely.
Affleck's own script based on Dennis Lehane's book of the same name can also be cumbersome on occasion and heavy handed.
The mobsters White and Pescatore are little more than movie cliche mobsters and we've seen the sidekick character that Messina plays a hundred times before.
 |
| Elle Fanning and Zoe Saldana |
Thanks to the great Robert Richardson it is also a fantastic looking film.
Richardson has been DP on the likes of "Shutter Island", "Kill Bill", "The Hateful Eight" and "Hugo".
Affleck makes great use of the brilliant cinematographer both in subtle ways and in grander ones.
Smartly he chooses some lingering close ups on Elle Fanning's lovely face in a scene that makes full use of her expressiveness.
During an early scene there is a nicely connected series of long tracking shots.
Best of all - there is a stonking gun fight action sequence towards the end that bodes well for the rumoured Batman flick that Affleck is rumoured to be writing and directing.
"Live By Night" isn't a perfect film or even a particularly great one but it is plenty good.
Perhaps it is Afflecks own high bar that worked against it in a lot of critics minds.
"Gone Baby Gone" was a brilliant debut film, "The Town" was phenomenal and "Argo" truly superb.
With "Live By Night" he hasn't again surpassed his previous efforts and I would argue that this is his weakest film so far.
But I liked it a lot and if this counts as a disappointment it is only a comparative one.
"Live By Night" is still a great endorsement for Affleck the director.
I suspect that history will show this film to have been far too harshly judged by many.
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