Some movies do not age well: Lawless does the opposite.
The setup is bare bones: Prohibition-era Virginia, three brothers running moonshine out of the hills, a city gangster and a very nasty lawman who both want a cut. That’s it. Everything interesting is happening inside these people.
Tom Hardy is unbelievable as Forrest. He grunts, adjusts his cardigan, stares somebody down, and that usually settles it. Early on he walks away from a wreck that should have flattened him, and from there you start buying the local legend that the man cannot be killed. The whole town believes it and so does he.
Shia LaBeouf surprised me also. Jack is the youngest, the one nobody takes seriously, and watching him strain to become a man that measures up to his brothers gives the film real heart.
Guy Pearce is genuinely frightening. He plays Special Deputy Rakes like a fussy little dandy who cleans his gloves and then does something horrifying. No shaved eyebrows have ever been scarier.
John Hillcoat shoots it like a Western: dusty roads, real locations, natural light, and wide shots of three brothers standing together with the hills behind them. That image tells you everything, right up until the world starts prying them apart.
And the violence is ugly. But the direction here is so incredible that it makes the audience feel like we pay the price and we take it personally.
A gangster story with dirt under its nails and performances worth chewing on. Watch it, then watch it again.
Leave a Reply