
A crime drama set in New York City during the winter of 1981, statistically one of the most violent years in the city's history, and centered on the lives of an immigrant and his family trying to expand their business and capitalize on opportunities as the rampant violence, decay, and corruption of the day drag them in and threaten to destroy all they have built.... (Full plot summary below)
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A crime drama set in New York City during the winter of 1981, statistically one of the most violent years in the city's history, and centered on the lives of an immigrant and his family trying to expand their business and capitalize on opportunities as the rampant violence, decay, and corruption of the day drag them in and threaten to destroy all they have built.
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| The Daily BeastNick SchagerA Most Violent Year resonates as the rare film to not simply take its superficial cues from The Godfather, but to truly understand its underlying ideas -- and, more impressive still, to re-work them into something thrillingly unique. |
| Chicago ReaderJ. R. Jones[Isaac's] coiled, charismatic performance strongly evokes Al Pacino as the young Michael Corleone, and Chandor's intelligent screenplay turns on a similar dilemma of how to maintain one's personal ethics in a cutthroat environment. |
| St. Louis Post-DispatchCalvin WilsonA far more interesting film than its title implies. And a film you’ve never seen before. |
| Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperNearly every scene in A Most Violent Year is pitch perfect. Chandor the writer comes across as a big fan of David Mamet’s, and Chandor the director invokes stylistic touches reminiscent of Sidney Lumet, among others, but Chandor is no cover artist. |
| Los Angeles TimesKenneth TuranA vibrant crime story filled to overflowing with crackling situations, taut dialogue and a heightened, even operatic sense of reality, A Most Violent Year captures us and doesn't let go. |
| San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleAs a great New York story, it’s also a great American story about ambition and failure, about the kind of people who make it, the kinds who don’t, and all the things that can go wrong. |
| The New York TimesA.O. ScottJ. C. Chandor, the writer and director of this pulpy, meaty, altogether terrific new film, and Bradford Young, its supremely talented director of photography, succeed in giving this beat-up version of the city both historical credibility and expressive power. |
| New York Daily NewsJoe NeumaierChandor (“All is Lost”) has made a movie that quietly but ferociously immerses us in a time and place, with atmosphere done in minimal yet evocative strokes. |
| The PlaylistJames RocchiA Most Violent Year asks you to watch and listen and pay close attention; it also rewards that investment with subtle, real pleasures and provocations. Set in that messy place where crime, business, law and politics intersect — which is to say, the real world — A Most Violent Year is a slow-burn drama about what kinds of compromises you'll make in order to tell yourself you haven't compromised. |
| HitfixDrew McWeenyJ. C. Chandor's A Most Violent Year is a powerfully told story, a thrilling surprise, and both Oscar Isaac and Jessica Chastain do remarkable work. |