Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		3.5
Overall		3.5

A Most Violent Year Blu-ray Movie Review

Heat.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman April 4, 2015

J.C. Chandor doesn’t have much of an official “oeuvre” yet, but he is slowly but surely establishing himself as one of the more interesting writer-directors of his generation. His debut feature Margin Call offered a labyrinthine but at times slightly overstuffed feeling trek through the arcane world of Wall Street wheelers and dealers. Chandor’s next at bat was the curiously underappreciated (or at least under seen) All Is Lost, a tour de force for both solo star Robert Redford and Chandor himself, one that detailed a harrowing fight for survival by a lone sailor after an unexpected calamity threatens his ability to (sorry for this one, folks) keep his head above water. I wasn’t quite the slavish acolyte of Margin Call that many other viewers and/or critics were, finding it a bit overheated while simultaneously underdeveloped, but All is Lost was simply such an achievement from a purely technical standpoint that it was impossible to ignore Chandor’s rather amazing mastery this early in his career. Now with his third film Chandor returns to the ensemble format that made Margin Call viscerally intense (if sometimes a tad confusing), offering another exposé of business practices in the wild and wooly world of New York City. This time, however, it’s not the high-falutin’ environment of stock brokers in the throes of a 21st century financial meltdown, but an almost unbelievably vicious turf war in the somewhat unlikely sphere of heating oil (yes, heating oil) in what was evidently a “most violent year” in New York’s roiling history, 1981. As convoluted as Margin Call (and arguably more so), but without the built in consternation that that film offered courtesy of its “in house” brokerage vocabulary and vernacular, A Most Violent Year is a slow burning but ultimately chilling discourse on the dangers of the American Dream, offering a well meaning immigrant named Abel Morales (Oscar Isaac) who has built a heating oil empire for himself that is being threatened both by violent competitors as well as a government investigation. Morales’ seemingly inherent belief that any authentic American Dream will be able to overcome the nightmares of real life results in him being ensnared in a slowly tightening noose that includes frightening acts of violence aimed at his drivers (and, later, even salespeople and family) while a similarly driven District Attorney named Lawrence (David Oyelowo) starts poking his nose into a business he feels is rife with underworld shenanigans.

A quasi-montage of sorts presents two different scenarios which confront the viewer with both the visceral anxiety of a daylight “out in the wide open” brutal hijacking of one of Morales’ heating oil trucks, as well as the more reserved, somewhat arcane, financial dealings Morales himself is undertaking, along with his sad sack attorney Andrew Walsh (Albert Brooks), in order to purchase an abandoned waterfront facility that will give Morales a leg up on his competition, allowing him to bypass traditional routes of getting his product into the city, and therefore perhaps negating any need to “worry” about the lawlessness that has led to the spate of hijackings. The current owners of the kind of dirty, dowdy port plant are ultra Orthodox Hasidim, a group which makes no bones about driving a hard bargain with Morales and Walsh, requiring a substantial upfront cash payment which will be forfeited if Morales can’t get the entire deal closed within thirty days. That sets an anxiety producing stopwatch counting down the minutes, one which ticks inexorably in the background throughout A Most Violent Year, even if some of the onscreen activities are a bit more languorously presented.

Abel is obviously a decent guy, as is made evident when he visits the badly injured driver who was victim to the hijacking, a young immigrant himself named Julian (Elyes Gabel). Abel actually walks over and hugs the guy, offering words of comfort. While geniunely concerned, Abel’s wife Anna (Jessica Chastain) doesn’t have time for social niceties with Julian. She’s concerned that this is just the beginning of a vicious turf war and that Abel’s inherent politeness and reserve may not be up to the task of fighting back. As it plays out, it turns out that Anna’s father had actually started the business Abel now owns, and that Anna’s family is perhaps a “family” of another sort, one that is still able to “take care of business” (so to speak), if only Anna says the word. Abel is convinced there is a better way forward, one that won’t require outright violence.

The rest of A Most Violent Year’s wending plot plays much like a supposedly near boiling pot that is indeed being watched—not just by one entity, but by virtually everyone in the film. Abel is watching events spiral out of his nattily gloved hand’s control. Anna is watching a husband perhaps unequal to the task at hand. Assistant District Attorney Lawrence is watching not just Abel, but the entire industry, keeping a scorecard of sorts as violence escalates and presumed criminal activity increases. Driver Julian is looking out for himself after Abel puts the kibosh on his drivers arming themselves in order to dissuade potential hijackers. Chandor moves these seemingly inartful pieces around on his cinematic chessboard surprisingly slowly at times, something that tends to actually increase tensions, since most audience members are going to be watching themselves, for some expected explosion of lunatic fury, an explosion which in fact more or less never materializes. Interestingly, aside from one visceral set piece involving Julian, A Most Violent Year tends to be a pretty talky enterprise, a proclivity it shares with Margin Call.

Many people have expressed a perhaps unavoidable opinion that Chandor seems to be channeling Sidney Lumet with this film. While it’s true Chandor has an eye for gritty urban environments that does indeed evoke some of Lumet’s pieces, Chandor’s examination of claustrophobia, one of the central tenets of Lumet’s oeuvre, is weirdly open aired when compared to the iconic director of yore. Lumet delighted in small, enclosed spaces, watching his characters scramble in them like trapped animals at times. Chandor’s formulation seems to suggest that when a noose is tightening around you, it doesn’t matter if you’re holed up in a tiny flat or out in the wilds of Manhattan—the rope is going to cinch one way or the other.

A Most Violent Year Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

A Most Violent Year is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Lionsgate Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.40:1. Shot digitally with a variety of Arri Alexa XT products, the film has been unusually color graded, with a lot of weirdly sickly yellow tones suffusing both interior and exterior scenes. This choice makes a lot of the inside material, much of which is dimly lit, even murkier than tends to be the case with Arri shot features, something that tends to keep fine detail from really popping in all but extreme close-ups. When combined with some less than robust contrast, this yellow palette has an almost miasmatic effect on certain scenes (again, more so with regard to inside moments), resulting in very little depth and minimal amounts of fine detail (see screenshot 19 for just one example). Even outside, the aggressive color grading prevents anything like traditional "pop" to the visuals, something that actually plays into the wintry mood of this piece. If one accepts this choice and its ramifications, things are agreeably sharp and general detail is quite good. Less overtly graded sequences, like the nifty set piece late in the film involving a traffic jam and a potential hijacking, offer a noticeable uptick in detail and fine detail, as well as better overall clarity due to the relative absence of the thick, syrupy yellow color.

A Most Violent Year Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

A Most Violent Year's lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 mix is kind of like an audio microcosm of the film itself, a slow burning offering that features bursts of excellent surround activity within a somewhat tamped down, restrained overall ambience. There's some great spaciousness in the outside sequences, where a glut of ambient environmental sounds offer lifelike approximations of everything from a turnpike tollbooth to the insane traffic of New York. The bulk of this film, though, tends to play out in almost hushed dialogue scenes, something that this track effortlessly supports without (to perhaps state the obvious) any overt showiness. Fidelity is excellent and dynamic range is wide, though again in spurts of activity.

A Most Violent Year Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Audio Commentary with Writer-Director J.C. Chandor and Producers Neal Dodson and Anna Gerb. This is a nicely informative and wide ranging commentary that covers a lot of ground, offering tidbits about some of the technical challenges of the shoot and anecdotal information about the actors.


• Behind the Violence (1080p; 44:00) is an interesting two part featurette that delves into a number of issues, including the plot, its historical context and some of the challenges of the shoot which attempted to recreate a specific historical milieu.


• A Conversation with Jessica Chastain and Oscar Isaac includes:

  The Early Years (1080p; 4:03)

  A Shared Foundation (1080p; 3:58)

  Mastering the Craft (1080p; 4:49)

• We Can Cure Violence (1080i; 1:32) is a PSA.


• The Contagious Nature of Violence: The Origins of A Most Violent Year (1080i; 3:10) is an interesting (if brief) conversation between Chandor and Gary Slutkin.


• Deleted Scenes (1080p; 7:44)


• Theatrical Trailer (1080p; 2:28)


• Teaser Trailer (1080p; 1:23)


• Inner City Crew (1080p; 1:20) evidently documents an exercise regimen of sorts.

A Most Violent Year Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

J.C. Chandor is a force to be reckoned with, but for me personally at least, he's a largely intellectual force, not one that speaks to the heart or emotions. That tendency may slightly undercut this tale of a resolute and seemingly honorable man attempting to walk the straight and narrow path when fate seems to be conspiring to pull him into one detour after another. Isaac is a commanding presence throughout the film, giving it a necessary feeling of gravitas, but A Most Violent Year is almost an anti-thriller in a way, a film built out of anxiety rather than outright brutality (aside from those hijackings, anyway). Those who liked Margin Call will probably be more immediately in tune with Chandor's tendency to talk about issues rather than merely depict them. Suitably moody, and with an impressive production design nicely recreating the early eighties, A Most Violent Year won't be everyone's cup of tea, but for those with a certain amount of patience who also appreciate fine ensemble acting, it comes Recommended.