Diagonaldi Very well executed

BootDigest Such a frustrating disappointment

Siflutter It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

Yash Wade Close shines in drama with strong language, adult themes.

Clifton Johnson Chandor has a gift: the tension simmers, the conflict builds and the characters face human conflicts. It doesn't matter whether it is Wall Street corruption, shipwrecks or family business, every movie feels high stakes. The story telling is tight, and the imagery is tighter. Performances like Isaac's here are rare, but the ability to harness them is rare too. This film is MacBeth set in 1981 New York. I wanted it to boil faster, but it cooked anyway. And the final shots were perfect.

InaneSwine This certain cure for insomnia plays as an adaptation of scenes scraped off the cutting room floors of Godfather and Goodfellas, plus one or two from The Wolf of Wall Street. The monotony is occasionally broken up by the film's only saving grace - the chemistry between Isaac and Chastain, who shine in their scenes together. Unfortunately, they are too few and far between, and this insipid drama shows just how little it has to say about any of the themes it touches on but makes no effort to try and explore. The lack of pace, action and plot development in the screenplay make A Most Violent Year, a most exhaustingly boring film.

paul2001sw-1 Viewers who watched J.C. Chandor's thoughtful 'Margin Call', about the 2008 financial crisis, will see some of the same strengths in 'A Most Violent Year', whose subject is the efforts of a businessman to stay afloat in the winter of 1981. But the setup here is not entirely satisfactory: the hero is good looking, has made enough money to be able to take "I like to own what I use" as a guiding principle, is the last honest man in New York, and even briefly turns action hero to track down those who are stealing from him. Even the basic premise of the plot is a little contrived: to win a deal, he offers terms which leave him exposed to all of the risk (and needless to say, some of that risk duly materialises). The film hints at the possibility that he might not be as straight as he professes (or even believes); but ultimately, shies away from this position. Instead, the film asks us to respect a man whose goal is to drive his rivals out of business, because he plans to do so through his own innate excellence. We do see hints of his single-mindedness that are unappealing; but the film refrains from passing harsh judgement. The perfection of the character somewhat undermined my interest in what is basically a very well-constructed film.

jinuj 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.