A Most Violent Year (2014)

To me at least, this engrossing film is much more about an independent businessman facing huge hurdles in a (very) tough industry, than it is the crime drama that critics allude to. Indeed, its (mistitled) title, based on other reviews on this site, apparently attracted some violence-aficionados who were expecting a mob film with wise guys decapitating each other, and were thus sorely disappointed. I can't remember many (any?) Hollywood films where the central character is a businessman who is portrayed as honest, decent, wise, and with an intuitive knowledge of human nature, and that frankly makes the film interesting to me. Abel Morales (as portrayed by Oscar Isaac) is the businessman in the film. He's a well-spoken, self-controlled immigrant businessman who's doing reasonably well in the NYC heating oil business, but in the film he plans a major expansion of his capacity by purchasing a fuel oil terminal on the East River. He has 30 days to secure the financing for the acquisition but he's beset by either rivals or freelancers who hijack his fuel trucks and sell his oil, plus an ambitious Assistant DA who's investigating price-rigging and tax evasion in the heating oil business who seems to be (unfairly) targeting Morales. One thing leads to another, allowing his bank to drop his financing, and he's forced to locate other sources of funding in the few days he has left to close the deal. Maybe these business issues don't do anything for you, but the characterization of Morales and his desire to do the right thing made me root for him. His wife, the daughter of a mobster, urges him to fight violence with violence to which he refuses. He even throws her gun away that she purchased for protection. Yes, there's criminal activity in this film (e.g., the hijackings) but it's essentially about an honest man trying to stay on the right side of the law operating in a cut-throat business who has a major investment that will either make him or break him. Eight stars for a rare portrayal of a businessmen struggling to overcome all sorts of obstacles.

This is one movie that I kept watching, hoping that it will really become something. But then it ended. I cursed, turned off the projector and went to sleep. The biggest issue is the lack of a compelling story. There are movies that take a slice of out of someone's life and make it compelling. I guess the writer's intentions were the same, but the end result feels like a bland unfinished meal. It is sometimes hard to go by IMDb ratings to select a movie to watch. I guess if you have enough friends to write glowing reviews, you can bring the ratings up to a point. Critics I guess try not to become lone wolves by toeing the most common critic denominator line and rate it above average. After all, its their job. They don't want to look outside the mainstream. So, I have no idea why it has 7.0 rating on IMDb, it should be a solid 6 for effort, cinematography and decent acting. Nothing more. Nothing less.

Just going by the title A Most Violent Year and the fact that it is a mob related movie you would think there's going to be a lot of violence in it. But there is actually not that much of violent scenes. Just enough to make the movie interesting. The story is more about a guy (played by Oscar Isaac) trying to make it in the oil distributing business without doing too much of illegal stuff. It becomes clear that it is not that easy with his truckers being robbed by the concurrence. The story is very easy and pleasing to watch with good actors and nice filming. It's an entertaining crime drama and it was better then I thought it would be. For once it deserves his high ratings on here.

. . . is the main take-away from A MOST VIOLENT YEAR. Even for folks who do not own a copy of BUSH CRIME FAMILY, which explains how Jeb Bush's grandpa--Prescott Bush--made World War Two possible by providing Hitler's Blitzkrieg with a crucial diesel fuel additive in the 1930s, the History of Oil is synonymous with the History of Violence, from 1880 to the Present. THERE WILL BE BLOOD, GIANT, and AMER!CAN SNIPER are just three of countless films documenting mayhem in the oil fields and in the Oil Wars. A MOST VIOLENT YEAR sets itself apart by focusing upon 18 deadly fuel oil truck hijackings, along with sundry kidnappings, beatings, and Acts of Terrorism which occurred around New York City in 1981. Oscar Isaacs plays "Abel," an adherent to Martin Luther King, Jr.'s Non-violent Preachings. But Abel's no more able to defend himself against the Little Oil Industry thugs than millions of ordinary Americans have been in combating Big Oil's Fracking (which has brought coast-to-coast earthquakes into formerly quake-free zones, causing untold thousands of cracked home foundations and driveways, not to mention polluted drinking water aquifers). Like America itself, A MOST VIOLENT YEAR shows Abel being slowly roasted alive in a vat of boiling oil. It's the peaceful Abels of this world who are doomed to perish under Big OR Little Oil's Mark of Cain.