When the dust settles on the 2014 movie season, films like Boyhood, Birdman, Selma and the Imitation Game (among many others) will be remembered fondly. They are all deserving of being mentioned when the best films of 2014 are being discussed, but there is another film that will inexplicably be left out of the discussion, as well as awards season.

 

That film is A Most Violent Year.  Blame it on poor marketing or blame it on screeners not getting out to the nominating committee, but A Most Violent Year is more than deserving of being considered one of the very best films of 2014.

 

A Most Violent Year tells the story of Abel Morales, played by Oscar Isaac who is one of the fastest rising stars in Hollywood.  Abel is an immigrant that owns his own home heating oil company.  He’s an ambitious person, and wants to expand his business. This doesn’t go over too well with his competitors in the area though.  A Most Violent Year takes place in New York City in the year 1981, an infamous year in the history of the city in which there were more than 1,800 murders.

 

The film is directed by J.C. Chandor (Margin Call, All Is Lost), who is quietly becoming one of the better directors working today.  Chandor has done a fantastic job of capturing New York in such a tumultuous time.  The film has a gritty feel to it, something you’d often find in a Sidney Lumet film.  He also wrote the screenplay and does a great job of weaving strong themes of marriage, family and the American Dream, as well as the struggles of owning your own business and the kind of strain that has on a marriage.

 

The two lead actors are what really stand out from A Most Violent Year.  Oscar Isaac gives the best performance of his career and really captures the essence of a man determined not to compromise his morals, even when everyone in his life is pushing him to do otherwise.  The main person in Abel’s life putting pressure on him to defend his business and his family at any cost is his wife Anna, played to perfection by Jessica Chastain.

 

Chastain has become one of my favorite actors since I saw her in The Help.  She adds such depth to every character she plays.  It’s no surprise that Anna’s first reaction is for her husband to react with an eye-for-an-eye mentality, her father was a gangster and his ways seemed to have rubbed off on her.  When she tells her husband, “You’re not gonna’ like what’ll happen once I get involved,” you know she means it.

 

Many of the promos for A Most Violent Year were calling the film this generation’s Godfather.  Obviously, that’s an unfair label for a film to have to live up to.  It’s almost impossible for any film to live up to that kind of hype, but the film does have a lot in common with The Godfather.  The strongest similarity between the two films is that of an immigrant striving for the American Dream.  A Most Violent Year also kind of looks like The Godfather.  The lighting and the grittiness of the film give it a real vintage feel.  It really does feel like a film from another era.

 

Another thing that A Most Violent Year has in common with The Godfather is its pace.  The film is very deliberate, and many will complain it’s too slow.  With the word “violent” in the title, some might be expecting a film like Goodfellas, or any number of gangster films with a high body count.  

 

That’s not what A Most Violent Year is.  It’s a story of one man’s desire to stay true to who he is at all costs in order to build his business in a legitimate manner.  The choices Abel makes one way or the other are going to impact the success of his business, as well as his family.  In a most excellent year for cinema, A Most Violent Year is a most overlooked film.