The Morales couple ran into a wild deer on the highway. The two looked at the seriously injured and dying life, and they discussed whether they should let it end the pain sooner.
Avil Morales took out a tire spoon from the trunk and walked to the deer's side, hesitating how to start. Suddenly, when a shot was fired, Anna Morales pulled the trigger, and Aville looked at his wife in astonishment, and then looked at her and shot another shot at the deer on the ground.
That night, Anna wore a low-cut gown with a towering snow-white breast half exposed, her expression calm and fierce, which was in line with the identity of the daughter of the gang leader.
This bridge is not only the beginning of the disagreement between the couple, but also seems to be the epitome of their conceptual gap. It should be said that the differences have always been there, but they have not been exposed before. As a successful businessman who is on the road to continued success, Avel is facing perhaps the most severe Shura field in his life. Every step is fraught with danger and may affect the fate of him and his family. Just like New York in 1981 in the background of the story, it suffered from the highest murder rate in history.
As a new director, J.C. Chandall has not many works, but all of them are wonderful. The previous "Shanghaitong" and "All Lost" have been widely praised. Many people think that Chandall’s films have the style of Sidney Lumet, with clear themes and full of criticism; the rhythm is perfect and the performances are charming; they often tell stories full of wisdom and intricate, emotional but not emotional. Is too exaggerated. These characteristics are more or less, but he is better at refracting the big propositions of the times or human nature through relatively streamlined personnel and time and space settings. "It has also been fully reflected.
Although the title of the film is "The Year of the Most Violent", there are few physical conflicts in the film, and it is even difficult to find the obvious climax. Instead, the depressed vision created by the shots of the construction site, the winter suburbs, and the highway, as well as the violent crimes frequently seen in the broadcast news, make the film full of turbulence throughout the film. Correspondingly, it uses retro shooting, soothing music, and calm rhythm to show Alville's inner world.
In the most turbulent era of the Big Apple City, the possibility of wanting to be a good person in society is almost zero, let alone a businessman trying to make a difference in the business world. Although Avel hopes to fight the crisis in a civilized way as much as possible, instead of being a torn beast that does everything. But all around him is full of hypocrisy that can be knocked down. People who deal with Avel, from Jewish landlords, FBI detectives, lawyers, to competitors, banks, and company employees, seem to respect or rely on Avel, and they disdain or distrust him behind their backs.
It even includes his wife Anna. Avel, who insists on doing serious business, is regarded as an ignorant hero by Anna who believes in realism. She can speak without shame about her husband's nobility and purity in front of the FBI, and she will also draw a gun and wipe her ass for her husband after hitting a deer. It wasn't until the moment when her man was dying to fight that she was willing to help. It turned out that Anna was also calculating Aville, taking advantage of the company's account to misappropriate public funds, and only at the last minute confessed the truth to him so that he could use the money to tide over the crisis. But this has broken Aville's heart. Even his closest lover is "betraying" himself. What else can he trust?
However, if you underestimate the complexity of Aville, if you think he will refuse Anna's help for idealism and moral principles, then you are wrong. Avel’s transition from shock to his wife was almost completed in an instant, which suffices to show that Avel himself is a hypocrite. The ideals and morals he upholds, and the compromises he made, are a more precise and far-sighted calculation designed to achieve the goal. Just as he usually doesn't carry a gun, because once he fires it, even for self-defense, it will ruin his overall plan. Alvel is not interested in becoming the boss of the companies in Brooklyn and Queens. His vision is aimed at Manhattan, those in the upper class, and politics. He has to climb to the top step by step. If you use a gun, everything will be ruined.
"The Year of the Most Violent" is black, deep, and atmospheric. Only a calm audience can taste it, and only a calm actor can perform such a movie well. Oscar Isaac and Jessica Chastain contributed the most wonderful performances. Originally Javier Baden was the default actor, but was later replaced by Isaac. Fortunately, Chastain and Isaac are old classmates, and they often acted together when they were studying acting at the Juilliard School of Music. This time they were naturally familiar. Isaac downplayed and lifted weights lightly, showing the power of quietness. And the explosive force of the model worker is a perfect interpretation of the cruelty of the daughter of the big brother, no wonder she can be nominated for the Golden Globe Award.
All of Chandall's criticism of Alville is condensed at the end of the film. When the car driver, who really admired heroism but had been robbed, finally committed suicide in front of Avel, Anna, and the lawyer, the three were stunned, thinking that the driver was going to kill themselves. And then Aville ran forward to take out the handkerchief, and it was not the blood left by the driver that blocked the fuel tank that was pierced by the bullet. The intersection of black oil and red blood on the white snow has clearly sublimated to the level of capitalist criticism. But such a dramatic coincidence is Chandall's concentrated criticism of human nature, the nature of human ambition he hopes to show and the price he has paid for it.
Perhaps this is also the price of the "American Dream." As Aville said: "I spent my whole life avoiding being a villain, and now I am one of them for the most important deal in my career."
♑
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