This taut drama about the Hispanic owner of a heating oil company and his Anglo wife struggling to stay rich in 1981, the most violent year in New York City's history, is good stuff, and Jack and I liked it a lot. Completely snubbed at the Oscars, it won the National Board of Review's Best Film, Best Actress, and tied for Best Actor with Michael Keaton. Oscar Isaac (last blogged in Inside Llewyn Davis), of Guatemalan and Cuban descent (his full name is Oscar Isaac Hernández), uses perfectly accented English for Abel Morales, whose country of origin is not named, and, along with Jessica Chastain (most recently in Interstellar) shows us the first world problems of the nouveau riche (her vintage Armani wardrobe is gorgeous) mixed with Abel's very real concern for his struggling employees. We're always glad to see Albert Brooks, now moving away from comedy such as This is 40 and into dramas such as Drive (I covered him in that one) and this, in which he plays Abel's lawyer. The talented David Oyelowo (last in Selma) plays the District Attorney, among many co-stars.
This is director/writer J.C. Chandor's third excellent project, after Margin Call and All is Lost, and we can expect more greatness in the future from this 40-something guy.
The music is by Alex Ebert, who scored All is Lost for the director. Here's a playlist of Ebert's tracks. I had a good time in the 1980s, but this and other gritty movies remind me of how glad I am that they're over.
Critics agree with us, for a change, averaging 90% on Rotten Tomatoes, to audiences' 73%.
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