Cast: Shia LaBeouf, Tom Hardy, Gary Oldman, Mia Wask, Jessica Chastain, Mason Clarke, Guy Pearce
MPAA Rating: Rated R for Strong Bloody Violence, language and some sexuality/nudity
Set in Depression-era Franklin County, Virginia, a bootlegging gang is
threatened by a new deputy and other authorities who want a cut of their
profits.
If there's one film I've been lookoing forward to for a long time its been "Lawless." I've been following the film since its early development stages basically because I use to be a huge fan of Shia LaBeouf but the more and more I heard of the project, the more I became intrigued. When the first trailer of the film was released back in April my mind was blown. This film looked incredible, I'm not usually a fan of period pieces set back in the later 1800's or early 1900's but the film had a more "Public Enemies" type feel in where it seemed to have that classic style of action film ontop of an intriguing story and after seeing "Lawless", I can officially say that I loved this film. This film definitely stands out as one of the best films of the year. Everything from the directing to the acting ontop of the story just made for an incredible movie watching experience and the film was so close to being an A film that one plot point was just too hard for me to ignore. The first thing I'm gonna go into is the story. The story was really good and I really appreciated how the director and writers portrayed it on the screen. The film is about an out of town deputy here to take out the bootlegging gang but the film doesn't portray either side as good or evil, they give them both negative and positive qualities. The reason I like this so much is that it adds a more realistic feel and helps the film keep going as its not your average good vs. evil, good wins type of film. One thing that goes with the story and its portrayal is the directing. John Hillcoat is the director of the film and I honestly believe he did a really good job with the film. From the basic things to the action sequences to the tone and feel of the film felt like how you'd really feel in a 1920's setting and was able to create it in a way where it just didn't feel boring and was able to showcase to a modern day audience. Another stand-out of the film was the acting. The acting features an ensemble cast that features Shia LaBeouf, Tom Hardy, Gary Oldman, and many others and every single one of them did good. Shia LaBeouf who I thought after the Transformers series was pretty much done from finding a job but he did a real good job and was completely believable in his part. Other standouts to me were Tom Hardy who had a real Bane esque feel to his character and you could even see in his voice that he was Bane. His character was completely bad-a** and every time he came on screen he brought a good since of intimidation with him. One man I loved to hate in this film was Guy Pearce. Guy Pearce is one of the most underrated actors and his performance in this film was just incredible. He had a sense of power over all characters and you felt it big time when he appeared on screen and thats what created such an interesting dynamic between Guy Pearce's character with Tom Hardy's. One actress who isn't get as much talk as she should was the girl with the crazy last name who played Alice in "Alice in Wonderland." Her relationship with Shia Labeouf's character was a really good part to the story. Their romance was a good off-set to all the craziness and mayhem that happened throughout the film and she did a good job of playing a counter act to that part of the story. With all this greatness this film portrayed, the one thing that hurt it most for me was *POTENTIAL SPOILER ALERT" that the characters were basically invincible. Tom Hardy's character went through much in that entire film that it angered me everytime he walked away happily. In real life he'd die and it took away all major feelings of tenseness when his character was on screen because he's not gonna die. You can't connect to a character who is being shot, stabbed, throat slit and just walk away from it. That's why so many don't like Superman. No matter who your character was in the film we should be able to connect with them. Usually I wouldn't let a small thing knock the grade down from an A, but when it has this much of an impact on the film I can't help but to face it but other than that this film was pretty close to perfect. Overall, this film was really good. If you enjoyed films like "Public Enemies" or just enjoy gangster style film in general than you'll like this film. The film offers pitch perfect acting, directing, and a great story ontop of it and other than that what can you really ask for in a film. My final recommendation is that you go see this film in theaters because you'll definitely enjoy it. Thank you guys for reading if you want updates on reviews you can follow me on facebook @ thecritics spotlight, twitter: @TheCriticSpot. If you've seen Lawless or are interested in watching "Lawless" tell me below and as always this has been TheCriticSpotlight.
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