Hello this is jake winters for eye on the triangle this is snowverated and today I will be taking a look at the film A Most Violent Year.

A most violent year came out in 2014 and was nominated that year for a Golden Globe. It didn’t win the award but that doesn’t really stand to show how impressive of a film it really was. I had not heard of this film before I watched it but got the recommendation in some way I can’t remember. This movie really was fantastic but it had some flaws that I can understand keeping it from winning awards.

The acting in A Most Violent Year had its weak points near the beginning of the film. It is understandable though because being cast for someone who is supposed to be in a state of almost misery and then having to play them as a content character is a test of range. They were given a lot to work with though because the characterization that comes from lines in the film add a lot to character without a whole lot of acting. Throughout a most violent year, I enjoyed how true the main character in the film stayed to himself. He held virtue above everything else and you could see how his values were going to topple him. How carefully the cards were put in the place to challenge the character, just enough for him to grow without losing it all in the end.

Filming in the movie was done extremely well. The used the frame to their advantage in so many cases to keep the audience from seeing exactly what was going on and keeping us on the edge of our seats. One scene in particular where the main character is up in the night looking for someone as he followed his dog at first and then led through the house the camera followed from afar. It gave the scene a sense of focus because we had to be so focused to see and understand what was going on in our field of vision. They used the camera with this expertise throughout the movie. There are a few beautiful shots of New York city in this film and though the city to

I felt A Most Violent year relied slightly too heavy on archetypes in certain situations to guide the script but that really wasn’t too unwelcome of a tactic for this film to use in creating drama. The story is still captivating and creates a world that these charcters fit into. They never tell you a lot about the background of the story and mainly you as the viewer are left to figure it out. This manner of story-telling takes a lot more effort on the part of the people designing the set. There have to be clues in the beginning of the film to give the setting instead of them outright saying who they are. Speaking of which the dialogue in the movie is so well written and they were able to stay so true to character and they let it impact the story in major ways. Instead of there being one plotline that almost certainly has to happen it doesn’t seem like this movie has any direction. They end up somewhere pretty close t where they started which is the weirdest part about this movie. It is one of those movies that you know the story will continue but we will never get to see the end of it. Maybe they will make a sequel they certainly could and I be right there to see it too. If they were to make a sequel I think that they would be able to clean up a lot of the style and fill in gaps in characters that remain. It would fix a lot of what I feel is wrong with the movie so I really hope they do go on to make a sequel.

The film did a great job of telling a story so that I didn’t feel like I was bored and seeing set up for most of the movie. Every movie needs to have ups and downs but having a lot of down time usually ends in a boring movie. This movie was full of suspense until the moment it ended. Sometimes it is hard to make it through movies even though they are interesting. They still get your interest but if you aren’t in a theatre like the majority of people watching movies there is nothing keeping you focused on the screen beside the stories captivation. This movie was hard to look away from for even a little because I always felt I had missed something if I did. A most violent year was truly a captivating film and I was glued to the screen.

I am going to give A Most Violent Year a 4/5 because it had everything I want from a movie but it almost felt like the movie wasn’t long enough. Even though it was two hours long. I guess if they had managed to give a little more personality and not so much obvious dialogue and plot shifts to some of the side characters it could have been a little more satisfying.

Thank you for listening to this weeks edition of eye on the triangle and snowverated. Im Jake Winters enjoy the rest of your evening