Had he not taken the lead role, perhaps this would have truly worked, but the strengths of the film outweigh the weaknesses, As a Boston boy, Affleck is always believable, as a gangster, I'm not so sure. In a world full of Marvel movies it isn't really a surprise that the initial audience gave it a thumbs down. I am pretty sure that in the long run its reputation will improve.
Live by Night
2016
Action / Crime / Drama / Thriller
Live by Night
2016
Action / Crime / Drama / Thriller
Plot summary
Boston, 1926. The '20s are roaring. 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, 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. Beyond money and power, even the threat of prison, one fate seems most likely for men like Joe: an early death. But until that day, he and his friends are determined to live life to the hilt. Joe embarks on a dizzying journey up the ladder of organized crime that takes him from the flash of Jazz Age Boston to the sensual shimmer of Tampa's Latin Quarter to the sizzling streets of Cuba. Live by Night is a riveting epic layered with a diverse cast of loyal friends and callous enemies, tough rumrunners and sultry femmes fatales, Bible-quoting evangelists and cruel Klansmen, all battling for survival and their piece of the American dream. At once a sweeping love story and a compelling saga of revenge, it is a spellbinding tour de force of betrayal and redemption, music and murder, that brings fully to life a bygone era when sin was cause for celebration and vice was a national virtue.
Uploaded by: FREEMAN
Director
Top cast
Zoe Saldana as Graciela
Ben Affleck as Joe Coughlin
Elle Fanning as Loretta Figgis
Sienna Miller as Emma Gould
Tech specs
720p.BLU 1080p.BLU 957.79 MB
1280*534
English 2.0
R
Movie Reviews
Reviewed by
Lead Role?
Reviewed by
Making use of the killing trade
In a theme that goes back at least to James Cagney in The Roaring 20s, Ben Affleck plays a disillusioned war veteran who having seen the promises of a just world and peace not coming to fruition has decided since he's learned the trade of killing decides to make use of it by becoming a criminal. It's hard for Affleck who produced, directed, and stars in Live By Night as he is the son of a police chief in Boston.
He gets caught up in a turf war between rival gangsters Remo Girone and Robert Glenister after a narrow escape from death and a prison term goes to work for Girone who asks him to organize in Florida and he chooses Tampa as his base. Affleck has to deal with other gangsters, the Ku Klux Klan, and holy roller revivalists and in the end there's one big shootout with his crew and his former Boston associates.
Three women have prominent roles here, Elle Fanning who was degraded in Hollywood and then becomes an Aimee Semple McPherson revivalist, Zoe Saldana daughter of a local Cuban rum importer who with Affleck breaks all kinds of racist taboos in Dixie Florida when she gets involved with him, and Sienna Miller who was originally involved with both Affleck and Glenister at the same time.
The ambiance of both 20s Boston and 20s/30s Tampa is well done here. Affleck also gets good performances out of his entire ensemble and take note of Chris Cooper as a redneck sheriff and Fanning's father, Cooper's brother-in-law is Matthew Maher whose bigotry as both the local Klan Kleagle is frightening and repellent, Chris Messina as Affleck's right hand guy, and Max Casella as the mutt son of Girone who has it in for Affleck. What he lacks in brains he makes up for in bile.
Director Affleck also got actor Affleck to give a great performance in the lead. Live By Night is an old fashioned gangster flick with some current themes.
Reviewed by
Very nice gangster effort
LIVE BY NIGHT is a tour-de-force gangster epic from Ben Affleck, set in 1920s Florida where rival gangsters seem to spend the whole running time plotting against each other and striving to win control of their turf. It's a lively, well-paced effort, directed very nicely by Affleck himself, who also bags the main role. The film reminded me of BOARDWALK EMPIRE particularly, which may have been the intent, and has the same quality of cinematography and feel. There are action scenes sprinkled liberally throughout and they're immersive and impressive, particularly a wonderfully old-fashioned car chase. The supporting cast is dotted with familiar character actors giving solid performances and overall there's very little to dislike about this one.