Live By Night

This review may contain spoilers!

This is one of Ben Affleck's worst films yet. I would give Live By Night a 3.5/10.

This film had a very good start, it was interesting to see Joe Coughlin's more reckless origins and how he crosses a big time mob boss. Furthermore I liked the role the Catholic church and the KKK had within this film; you don't often see the KKK as a criminal organisation extorting money alongside the gangsters so this brought a whole new side to their antagonist status, furthermore I liked how much power the church held particularly in stopping one of Coughlin's criminal enterprises after he crosses a member of the community. Really this film does it's best when it's truly examining the gang politics fully and seeing how factions engage with one another, this builds to a very well orchestrated shoot out at the end of the film. The cinematography has it's good and bad moments, though I do think Affleck shows a good eye for crafting aesthetically pleasing shots the further the film moves along. The score is a real throwback to that 1920s era, I loved how it dipped and dived and provided a very melancholy atmosphere.

Elle Fanning, who played Loretta Figgis, hasn't had much luck with her choice of scripts this year but has really stolen the show in each of them; Fanning crafts an incredibly overdramatic messiah figure yet also presents an abused and reclusive young woman in more intimate scenes. Remo Girone, who played Maso Pescatore, does a grand job at playing a very subtly intimidating mob boss; Girone presents a man who runs crime like a king and knows the power he wields. Brendan Gleeson, who played Thomas Coughlin, is a very steady and stern father figure in this feature; Gleeson's intolerance towards crime and criminal element sets him in conflict with his onscreen son Affleck in a very riveting way. Robert Glenister, who played Albert White, is a completely unpredictable wild card onscreen; if Girone's role was a king then Glenister's is an animal fiercely protecting his territory.

However the best performance came from Sienna Miller, who played Emma Gould. Miller and Affleck have a lot of chemistry in this film and it's clear to see the great relationship between their respective characters. I appreciated Miller's fierce defense of herself and her way of life, it brought her into conflict with Gleeson and Affleck a couple of time. She's one of the more tragic figures of the film as she was trapped in a life that really punished her existence, I loved her character's unapologetic views about gaining freedom by the end of the film and felt it provided one of the best scenes of the feature.

This film had a narrative that never really seemed to stay on track; what is advertised is a gangster film but what you get is quite different. Throughout the film we get a forbidden love story, a gang war film, a civil rights film, a scrutiny of religion and the purification of Joe Coughlin. The way the plot kept shifting back and forth between premises got confusing and you weren't really sure what the message really was by the end of it all. Furthermore the barrage of voice over exposition grew real tiring real quick, every single time the plot needed to make a time jump but didn't know how to show the change in setting, politics or character we were dealt a heavy information dump. The ending of this film was a serious problem as well, the misuse of Chief Figgis, subsequent death of Graciela and bonding time Joe has with his son are all very rushed moments that feel out of tone with the rest of the film thus far. The editing for the film was slow and arduous, often having a seriously negative effect on the film's pacing.

Ben Affleck, who played Joe Coughlin, is probably the worst pick for protagonist of his own film; Affleck doesn't really seem to grasp the role so you're left with quite a distanced and emotionless performance throughout the film. Matthew Maher, who played RD Pruitt, is this bumbling anatagonist who trainwrecks a big section of the film; Maher just doesn't have the acting ability to carry a major antagonist role. Chris Messina and B.C. Halifax, who played Dion Bartolo and Paulo Bartolo respectively, start this film as Affleck's goons who lack serious screen presence; Messina is given more to do later on but it's mostly exposition or flat witticisms. Miguel, who played Esteban Suarez, has some really bad line delivery in this film; one of the hardest things to take seriously about him is that he could be Saldana's brother - their onscreen chemistry being non-existent. Zoe Saldana, who played Graciela, was a bit on the nose as Affleck's love interest; I found her role's pure values hard to reconcile with her role's earlier dealings in the criminal world. Chris Cooper, who played Chief Figgis, looks as if he's had all the energy and enthusiasm knocked out of him in this film; the sudden twist of Cooper becoming a fanatical raving loon minutes before the film ended was an especially weak moment. Max Casella, who played Digger Pescatore, is a very forgettable antagonist in this film; you struggle to make connections with how this role relates to the rest of the cast up until about a minute before he dies offscreen. Anthony Michael Hall, who played Gary L. Smith, is a bit of a bumbling comedic character that has a bit of a throwaway scene in this feature; it would have been nice for this scene to establish a better look at the dealings of crime in Tampa as opposed to some weird comedic interrogation moment.