Lawless
Edgar Cochran ✝️

Review by Edgar Cochran ✝️ Patron

Lawless 2012

★★★½

Watched 03 Jan 2020

Between Gary Oldman being more effective than half the cast in a few minutes through golden dark comedy, making Guy Pearce resurface since 2005 through what is the best performance of his entire career after starring many irrelevant films and having some cameos in popular films, or Tom Hardy talking with a low, grave voice while grunting, mumbling and "uhm"ing in every situation imaginable, I can't choose my favorite part. However, I am so glad this got a Palme d'Or consideration.

Lawless is a brutal, heavily modified version about a true story of the Prohibition Era, plagued by an excellent cast, merciless screenwriting and surprisingly magnificent characters specifically designed for the actresses and actors chosen for them. It's not a matter of having big names, but choosing great roles for them and magnify their talents through a powerful screenwriting. Hillcoat is a brutal director indeed, but he has shined again thanks to Nick Cave's screenplays and I hope this continues.

Not exempted from emotional dramatization to cope with the usual Hollywood tropes, this is, thankfully, more than a simple crime film. It is an unusual exploration about the doble moral in any law imposed over a society, the corruption of the authorities, and the humanity of outlaws. "Illegal is a point of view", states Jack, and so do the Bondurant brothers with their ideology. Painfully, that is true. At the beginning, as in any famous gangster/mafia film plagued with disgusting characters as protagonists, you immediately face the dilemma of rooting for them or watching the show through ethical eyes and expect justice. Or you can simply feel overwhelmed and apathetic by the fact that everyone are disgusting scumbags mixing innocent people in tragic acts of destruction.

However, the film evolves into a consideration of said characters despite their animalistic behavior and picks the human side in the middle of a pool of blood. "It is not the violence that sets a man apart[...] lt is the distance that he is prepared to go." That is the thematic core and the whole film circles around it.

Props for finding a role for the by-then Transformers-maligned LaBeouf that challenged his acting skills and actually found the kind of roles he was born to play for the meantime.

Also, this film loves the song Fire in the Blood too much.

75/100

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