Live by Night Reviews

Summary In the roaring '20s, Prohibition hasn’t stopped the flow of booze in an underground network of gangster-run speakeasies. The opportunity to gain power and money is there for any man with enough ambition and nerve and Joe Coughlin, the son of the Boston Police Superintendent, long ago turned his back on his strict upbringing for the spoil...

• Action

• Crime

• Drama

• Thriller

The film’s climax is tautly executed; the way everything plays out is a whirl of brutal, violent beauty.

While the filmmaker conjures beautiful imagery and a subtle exploration of fathers and their children, the good stuff is too often caught up in a muddle of well-tread crime clichés.

[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]

[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]

It doesn’t help matters that the movie seems to end three times before it ends, and none of those ends are satisfying.

Affleck sports plenty of snappy ’20s fashions, tailored double-breasted suits, often cream-colored, and elegant Borsalino-style fedoras. He’s dressed to kill for sure. Too bad his movie is so deadly dull.

The movie is handsomely mounted with upscale production values, but it feels sluggish and disjointed.

Live by Night is a mess. It’s got some interesting elements that Affleck, who wrote the script based on a Dennis Lehane novel, surprisingly can’t pull together. And, it must be said, his performance in the lead role isn’t up to snuff.

Labelling Live By Night a disaster is a little uncharitable; the baggy drama is perhaps more painfully mediocre than full-blown folly, but it’s close.

An interesting story about a guy living in Boston, who dates the wrong woman. But then becomes a big shot working for the italian mob. Ben Affleck plays a guy who is crafty, and has to deal with racists and people from his past to accomplish his goal. And alltogether, it is quite enjoyable to watch. I can keep this short saying i was pleasantly surprised by the movie and a look in the prohibition. It's an excellent movie, i give it an 8/10.

[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]

In the end, I think is a good movie. The resolution is great at every level. But the truth is the first act is quite boring. A lot of characters are presented with (boring) care. After the work is done (and it feels like work, which is quite awful, probably), the movie starts to pick up in tension The third act is really great and makes the movie what it is. The performances are just fine in my opinion. Professional might be the right word. So... If you like Ben Afflect, you have to see this If you DISlike Ben Afflect, you better not see it If you are indiferent to him, I recommend it

A swing and a miss, maybe the precision should have taken into account rather than power. Live By Night Affleck's homage to Brian De Palme-isc late '80s gangster genre is admirable. And that is it. Appreciation draws out a nod here and never anything else. The emotions are bland and too belittled by the hip and happening of the nature it so desperately wants to be. The set rules, that Ben Affleck, the writer, director and starrer, so proudly claims to have, have boundaries visible barely on the horizon and yet we are told repetitively to care for the daily formal business or personal conflicts that is resulting into textbook character arcs. And what Affleck actually cares about and is actually looking forward for the entire film, which is dodging the generic bullets of shock and awe therapy, is never romanticized enough to create the raw crisp moment when he asks for. In those last moments, where up till now the film was reserved, had to amp up now for a final cathartic punch, finds itself immensely immersed into a tedious procedure to offer you a sigh of relief. That peace after the storm comes with a price. A price too heavy to retract from that point. On the other hand, the film looks ravishing. Affleck's love for the genre, a wee bit cartoonish, but still utterly understandable, colors each frame with a poised respect in this sensitive world. Which can also be interpreted as his doom. For instance, take the trajectory of Sienna Miller's character in the film. She carries incredible weight, power among these characters, hence she is given a seperate fast and runny first act. Now, Affleck is taking this opportunity to brim his film with stereotypical montages of some street boy or "outlaw"- as he calls himself- making into a big shot as an excuse to value her presence. Scoffing at this particular character and evaluating her into a resonating memory, Live By Night could have easily been a shorter special night.

[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]

Taurus World Stunt Awards

Location Managers Guild International Awards (LMGI)