Filmmaker J.C. Chandor is quickly becoming one of the most exciting and dynamic emerging American filmmakers today. Within three films he’s created a voice with distinctive preoccupations but eclectic forms. “Margin Call” is a talky ensemble piece set within the Wall Street collapse, while “All Is Lost,” starring Robert Redford is almost the opposite, an existentialist survival drama set on the high seas featuring one character who barely speaks.
His latest project, “A Most Violent Year,” is really a subversion of the gangster film right down to its title. While on the surface, the picture seems like a classic ‘Godfather’-esque crime drama about money, greed, power, the American Dream, and the cost of those pursuits, the film is actually much more nuanced, character-driven effort about the complexities of ambition, how veering off course morally can be quietly minute, and how our self-beliefs can blind us to the truths around us.
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