iTunes Exclusive Episode A Most Violent Year

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The following is a sooner or gator production.
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My name is Rob and I'm the executive producer and I guess you could just call me the conductor
of the orchestra.
But it is time for me to be joined by people as well, but he and I together make people.
As in, there's two people in the studio.
There's a math involved, I don't want to confuse you.
But he is the official fact checker of this show.
And he is a man that I don't know that's ever been to the great Northeast.
But we're about to find out.
You may know I'm a Spawn Dongo, but his mom and even Don Ford, I'm going to call him Don Ford a welcome sir.
I've never been to New York.
I've been there twice on an overnight trip.
I've never been to New York.
I want to see it.
I'm certainly a world trade center and all that memorial.
I'll have it great.
But I'm, we're he lost a wheel.
That's so far.
The music character itself.
Yeah, always is.
If you're accent on the iTunes.
Well, you know, I'm from the East Coast.
So we know the accent well.
We lost a wheel, but we're working, we're going to go.
Every time we do one of these, it's to review something and this is no different.
Tonight, or today, depending on when you're listening, right here to judge you outwardly,
is a movie called a most violent year.
It is the latest from director J.C. Shandor, who you might know from a movie that's got a little bit of attention.
A couple of years ago, called all as lost with Robert Redford,
also directed margin call, which was kind of more of an independent film that takes place around the collapse of the economy.
In the 2000s.
So the guy's got skins on the wall.
He's also, he also wrote a script for this, takes place in New York in 1981.
There's a big struggle over home oil.
It's wintertime.
Abel Morales, played by Oscar Isaac, runs a company called Standard.
And he's running into some problems with some of the other companies in the area because he's on the rise.
He's gaining momentum quickly.
And his drivers are getting robbed at gunpoint.
And their fuel is being stolen.
Which of course, he's making him do his money.
He has just recently bought a brand new, not only brand new, but brand new to him,
piece of property that he thinks is going to give him an advantage in the game.
And he has to put half the deposit down and then come up with the other half within 30 days.
And then things get weird.
That's all we're really going to say right now.
Also starring Jessica Chastain is in this.
Albert Brooks is in this Peter Garrity, who you would recognize from a lot of stuff is in this.
Ashley Williams, but you know, you were talking about getting old.
I remember actually Williams and she was on growing pains back in the day.
So she was a little girl.
A lot of up and coming actors in this as well.
Let me turn this down a little bit so we can talk.
Okay.
Oscar Isaac your main player in this.
You would know him from inside Lou and Davis.
He was in the Ridley Scott version of Robin Hood.
He was in sucker punch.
He was in drive.
But this really is the first starring vehicle for him.
Major.
Yeah, absolutely.
But let's start with Shandor and his script and his vision for the film.
Don, what did you feel about the story itself?
For again, we got to take our best buddies out.
Absolutely.
Thanks for having us in.
Ashley thinks we're having us out for this.
The looking.
It was very interesting for me.
It was really historically set.
1981.
Yeah.
And I'm going to talk about that.
But I'm going to let you finish.
But it was really historically set.
Even so like the world trade centers up there.
Stuff like that.
Some of the cars were historically correct.
But the thing about the character, the main character, Albal.
I mean, Abel is played by Oscar.
Yeah, Oscarizing.
He wants to run an honest company.
That's the big thing.
He likes to run it honestly.
None of the dirty stuff.
None of the payoffs.
Right.
By just giving a better product.
Having the best trucks out there.
That kind of thing.
So that's why they're kind of getting against them.
Because he's not given off the payoffs.
And all that gets stuff.
He's trying to work it straight out.
And there's the young DA.
Yeah.
That's kind of working against him as well.
Exactly.
But it seemed kind of gritty.
I hate these.
I turn it off.
But it kind of was.
It wasn't real bright.
It wasn't real.
Pazazzy.
You start with the opening scene in a trailer.
And it just felt like you were there.
It is very tightly shot.
Yeah.
Exactly.
Not a big bunch of bright lights.
But that's kind of what that world is at that time.
Especially in 801 where it's so corrupt on everything in that kind of business at the time.
So the look I did like.
I like the the film of the movie.
I think he had a good kind of.
It kept the look to hold through the whole film.
In a play the part well.
For me.
What I really really dug about the visual style and the storytelling.
A lot of times when you have these.
I mean, you can almost call it period pieces, which is weird to me because it's not that old.
But when you have films that are set in a specific time,
especially when that time is supposed to be correlated in real.
You almost rely on a soundtrack or TV shows that people are watching or mentions of technology that would go,
Ooh, we're in 1981.
This film did none of that.
It opens with Marvin Gaye's inner city blues, which is a song I love anyway.
Oh yeah.
But that was it.
There was no other music besides the score in the film,
which I thought was a very, very bold move.
That he was going to rely on the visuals he had and the story itself to drive really.
What what was going on and puts you in the right time frame.
And I thought I really thought the Shendor did a great job doing that because that's hard to do.
Yeah.
But he had enough faith in the material and the actors involved that he didn't have to bombard you with 1981 references.
Well, one thing that's in my written review.
It's going to be on the clubhouseplacast.com or whatever.
Okay.
It's, it had that look of like kill street blues.
I can see how you say that.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Because I love that show.
But it had that kind of look feel.
It's like this movie was shot during when they're filming the history blues.
It's a really good way to describe it.
I just thought Shendor's story telling was great.
When I first heard about this film, I for some reason I thought it was based on a true story.
It's not.
It's fictionalized.
It's told in a way that you could see that if it was a true story.
It's told very, very well.
Visually, a lot of it takes place in the winter.
Actually, I think all of it, the whole thing takes place in the winter.
Even though it's called the most violent year, it only takes place over about six weeks.
Because it's the month from the beginning of the end of the contract.
Okay.
Yeah.
Yeah.
That's the storyline.
But for me, I just, I really thought his use of visual.
The starkness of winter.
When, you know, there's, there's snow on the ground.
But it almost is like, you know, let's talk about New York being a character.
New, the city wasn't as much of a character as just winter itself was a character.
I felt in this where it was really conveying how bleak things were because everything was just so bright.
And all of the snow that you walk through snow, you don't just walk.
You have to kind of trudge through it and it comes.
That's kind of how I felt.
You know, the characters we're going through.
Well, I think they put in that month because it's heating oil.
That's what they're talking about.
Oh, yeah.
Yeah.
I didn't really see that too much, but I could see where you're coming from on that one.
You talked about the storyline.
I want to get into this a little bit.
I did like the plot.
I like the message she was conveying on the film.
I thought it kept me intrigued somewhat.
Okay.
The movie, I think, went too slow.
It did drag in it.
Yeah.
It's two hours and five minutes.
Yes.
They could have done it a little bit faster.
They could have done it a minute here a minute there.
It wasn't like there's just a 20 minute block.
They could have got rid of it.
There's some good scenes.
There's some scenes that kept you on the edge of your seat.
There's some scenes you're really looking into going.
Wow.
On.
But I just thought it was kind of like if you're driving a car on the interstate.
And there's that car going 40 miles an hour and everybody else is doing 70.
That's what it kind of thought in the storyline.
I did like the storyline.
It liked the plot.
It kept me interested.
It just seemed to go, you know, tug, tug, tug, tug, tug, tug, tug, tug.
Which would then lead us into the performances themselves that drove that story.
I was very impressed on a certain level with Oscar Isaac.
For me, there were times when it was like he wanted to be Pacino and the godfather.
So bad he could taste it.
But there were other times where he was kind of making it his own.
And it was a weird dynamic for me.
Because when you want to boil this film down, it's a gangster film without the mob.
Which is really weird thing for me.
Well, there's the mob a little bit in there, but not much.
Not the mob.
Oh, yeah.
No.
Yeah.
It's a gangster film with the mob.
And it's just I can see where Shendor was going with it.
I just don't know that it ever got there.
But again, Oscar Isaac was good.
I wouldn't say he was great.
Yeah.
He was good.
But he was good.
On your point there, there was a couple scenes in there where he's running a suit and sitting down
with this look.
Here we go.
You know what?
He could have been a step down.
He looked up at you.
He looked up at you.
He looked up at you.
He looked up at you.
He looked up at you.
He looked up at you.
He looked up at you.
He looked up at you.
He looked up at you.
He looked up at you.
There's just Godfather, something else.
You know, they ditched my attention.
I'm not saying there was bad or anything, but just kind of noticed he just
looked just like machino and a Godfather.
And I really think that's what he was going for.
But on the acting, one of the one I'd have to give into is of course you got just
a chance to aim zero dark thirty.
Oh, it looks like that.
Shoud out.
Also, I have to give a shout out to I old's civil who plays Julian, one of his workers.
Who has a small but very pivotal role.
But very pivotal role. I would say minor. He's not the major, but he's kind of, he'd be like a triple A in the
But his role is very very very very necessary to know he doesn't credible. I wasn't, if I have to give a shout out on acting for anybody in that film
It'd be the guy with Jillian there. I thought he was very very good. There's not a lot of characters in this film
Yeah, and so it's you kind of are narrowed down or we got a lot of characters
I maybe do five minutes or here or there, but there's only about you to say a handful that are in there through most of the film, right?
You know, like for instance, you could say, you know, Albert Brooks. He was in there a lot
But he's here here here here here, but he's in there throughout the film same with Julian and stuff like that beyond that besides
Chesting and Isaac and all that they're probably about five ten-minute roles like one of the rival owners of the business
He's probably in there even though he's in there like three or four times. He's only in there for 12 or five minutes
Another one of my favorite actors is in this film Jerry Adler who played the rabbi
Sydney from rescue me. Yeah, you know, I was just like, oh, he's in this because I'm a huge fan of Jerry Adler
very much enjoy his work
a lot of just smaller parts in this that I thought were just really really well done
But
I felt like Jessica Chesting in this movie wasn't I I don't know if they didn't utilize her in the right way
But I kind of felt
She was kind of shoehorned in there a little bit for me. You think so because her character Anna
We read we learn as the film goes on that she is the daughter allegedly
We never really go into it, but apparently her father and brother have
Organized crime ties
So they actually said to movie that her dad is a gangster and her brother is a gangster right
But outside of that I just didn't see
Because it kind of showed what what he could the path he could have taken
but
Outside of that I didn't see any use for her in this movie like her character didn't drive anything for me
There's a scene where she's talking to the DA on the day of one of their daughters birthday party
Which I really thought okay, this is a catalyst for her character to be more involved and to be
Deeper into this thing and it never happened till about the very end on one scene
Which we can vital, but but but but even thusly
Yeah, I just was kind of like
Okay
She didn't she didn't do any for a a an actress of her caliber
Who has been doing nothing but going up and going up and going up? I kind of felt this was almost a step backwards for her
It's kind of like having a
Major league baseball game with
A rod or you know you name it any of those big eyes and saying well we're gonna
But set them out for you know six innings, you know or jeeter imagine jeeter
One yeah exactly we're gonna jeeter
You're gonna be out the bat maybe you're gonna take out the rotation here or there she had a roll
It was a simple roll. It wasn't anything it's traffic in but she didn't do bad. I'm not saying she acted badly
I just kind of it was a simple roll. It was a plain roll
It just it did nothing to further the story for me. That was my issue with she was just there. Yeah, and
There were certain things here and there but I didn't feel like
You could have told that part of a story with somebody else. Yeah, it didn't have to be his wife
Exactly, and I guess that was where my issue comes from
Anything else you want to talk about as far as the film itself goes
I just my big thing is I have to give a shout out to Jillian we gotta play his character. I I really liked it
Still it was a good plot. Can't me go and it just
Drake for me. That was the problem and that's my big downfall. It just went to
It was in watching it but it was just went too slow. I thought
They could have cut out a minute there a minute there a minute there so silver all I I did like to film though
All right show me to the final analysis. Let's go for it
When we do the final analysis on this show we don't give you grades or thumbs up or thumbs down or
one to ten or whatever
Because our audience the empire we think you're worth more than that. So here's how it works with us
It's a two-prong question
Number one, would you see this film again? The answer is no then we're done here
But if the answer is yes
How far would you go to see this film again? Would you pay for it in full price?
Would you see it maybe as a twilight maybe a mad name maybe early morning maybe in second run
Would you see it's wait for it on like a rental wait for it on cable whatever
Don would you see this film again? I'll give it to yes, okay
To what extent would you see this film again? I would see it in recommended on
Some like HBO I would see this film again, but I think I agree with you there. I just think that there was something
There was something missing from me there was a
There wasn't enough meat on the bone
It's like it's the way you could say yeah because it just didn't
It didn't really resonate with me, but I will say this and one thing that I was incredibly
Incredibly impressed with was the score in this film
Oh, yeah
Very good again. We talked earlier about the the soundtrack
And how there didn't have to be a bunch of songs from 1981 to remind you to join 1981
But the the musical score itself
That played underneath
Set the tone so well for me. I was very very impressed Alex Ebert or Ebert did did the score for this
Not agree with you. It was very good score
I know complaints
It's fit to fit the tone of the film very very well
he's actually in
In two different bands one called I'm a robot and the other one Edward Sharp and the magnetic zeros
He he previously worked with the director on all his lost. He's worked on what to expect when you're expecting
10 years which is very underrated film in my personal opinion
I would I think I'm with you. I would probably either wait for it on cable or maybe rent it on
DVD or blue ray
It's an interesting film. I just don't know that it ever got to where it should have gone
Yeah, it wasn't horrible. I'm not saying don't go don't exactly
But it's worth your time, but don't go rushing for the mean, you know the
The full price on the weekend night a most violent year
Got to get everybody now. I'd again think Sasha. Thank you so much for having us. Thank you guys. All right. Let's do the plugs
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