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Live By Night is one of those films written, directed by and starring one main person, this one being… Ben Affleck, whose recent box-office success hasn’t been brilliant in my eyes.
I’ve yet to see Gone Girl, but Argo was the last film I enjoyed with him in it, and he also directed it so perhaps there’s mileage in this one, since there wasn’t a great deal in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice or The Accountant, and while Suicide Squad was great, that cannot be attributed to his cameo.
So, onto this film and it’s Boston, 1926, during the roaring ’20s. Liquor is flowing, bullets are flying, and one man sets out to make his mark on the world. Prohibition has given rise to an endless network of underground distilleries, speakeasies, gangsters, and corrupt cops. Joe Coughlin (Affleck), the youngest son of a prominent Boston police captain, has long since turned his back on his strict and proper upbringing.
Now having graduated from a childhood of petty theft to a career in the pay of the city’s most fearsome mobsters, Joe enjoys the spoils, thrills, and notoriety of being an outlaw. But life on the dark side carries a heavy price. In a time when ruthless men of ambition, armed with cash, illegal booze, and guns, battle for control, no one-neither family nor friend, enemy nor lover-can be trusted. So, it’s Mafia on the big screen.
Based on the novel by Dennis Lehane, and also starring Zoe Saldana, Elle Fanning, Scott Eastwood, Sienna Miller, Anthony Michael Hall, Brendan Gleeson, Titus Welliver, Chris Cooper, Robert Glenister and JD Evermore, and based on the trailer, this looks like it could go either way – either great, or terrible.
Also, when I saw the first trailer on Youtube for this film, it was preceeded by an advert… for this film! Yes, the very same trailer!!!
Live By Night is due in UK cinemas on January 13th, 2017, so clearly aiming for Oscar nominations at that time of year.
Check out the trailer below and click on the poster for the full-size image.
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.