Live By Night follows World War I veteran Joe Coughlin's descent into delinquency amidst Prohibition and the Roaring '20's. Ben Affleck directs, writes, produces, and stars in his followup to Best Picture winner Argo, Live By Night, so it's needless to say he had a lot of heavy lifting to do.
2016 wasn't the greatest year for Ben Affleck, he headlined both Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and The Accountant, which were divisive among movie goers and critics but ultimately diced on Rotten Tomatoes. BvS didn't perform as expected, failing to truly do well beyond it's opening weekend and while I was ultimately disappointed I can say its unfairly slammed at times. Ben Affleck's turns in both aforementioned blockbusters were a high mark and he certainly elevated the material.
Live By Night is another 2016 Warner Bros. release headlining Ben Affleck, this case in just about every department, that's not being looked kindly upon by critics (it's in contention for the 2016 Oscar season and premiered in limited release so I'm counting it as one). Unfortunately, Affleck doesn't fully deliver in all areas since the story lifted from Dennis Lehane's novel gets muddled in the transition to screenplay as story points are quickly brushed over rather than spending the time to emphasize the significance of said events. The film's end does however justify the means to reach its conclusion by tying everything together nicely but the glut in-between can't be ignored for dragging the film down a notch.
Affleck's direction on the other hand is as refined as his previous work with Live By Night certainly evoking the atmosphere of a mobster flick. There are two exhilarating action sequences in Live By Night: a thrilling get-away car chase and an old fashioned gangster shoot-out to cap things off and if these action sequences did anything other than keep my eye's glued to the screen, they further supported that Ben Affleck's upcoming Batman project should be quite the spectacle. The technical aspects of Live By Night are the crème de la crème with authentic 1920's production and costume design and illustrious imagery captured by Robert Richardson's excellent cinematography.
The cast also do quite well with their roles regardless of size, adding to the authenticity of the time with various accents and nuanced portrayals. Ben Affleck delivers some awesome gangster quips but his character Joe Coughlin never feels quite fully formed, he's a man who stays true to his moral compass but even when he does something bad you can't quite despise him as Affleck portrays him in a noble light. Just a fine performance from a talented man, nothing to praise or jeer. Chris Messina brings Coughlin's best bud and trusted ally Dion Bartolo to the silver screen as a delightful companion to Affleck who helps bring the film out of it's darker moments.
Sienna Miller and Zoe Saldana are fairly static love interests for Coughlin and are fabulous actresses who are criminally wasted in this film, they don't have much to do aside from drive the plot and aren't able to leave much impression on the viewer. Elle Fanning, Brendan Gleeson, and Chris Cooper all have brief but crucial supporting roles in the narrative as a girl who's seen the light and error of her ways Loretta Figis, police captain and father Thomas Coughlin, and Tampa Sheriff Figis. Meanwhile, the Irish and Italian mafias being headed up by Robert Glenister and Remo Girone respectively with Matthew Maher playing a disgustingly wicked Ku Klux Klan leader on the sidelines. Also, keep your eyes peeled for some surprising cameo appearances from some well known talent.
In summary, Live By Night has it's moments and will successfully engross viewers in the mobster drama but would be much better served with an episodic format as opposed to the scrunched 130 minute runtime provided. If a period piece crime drama's your thing, then you should be fairly satisfied with Live By Night.
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