Lawless (FILM REVIEW)
Lawless
Film Review by Kam Williams
Prohibition Era Crime Saga Revisits Real-Life
Exploits of the Bootlegging Bondurant Brothers
It is Franklin County, Virginia
during Prohibition, which is where we find the bootlegging Bondurant brothers,
Jack (Shia LaBeouf), Forrest (Tom Hardy) and Howard
(Jason Clarke),running a thriving moonshining business with the help of a pal with
colorful name Cricket (Dane DeHaan). But the siblings’ blissful existence
starts to crumble the day Jack sees Floyd Banner (Gary Oldman), a coldblooded gangster
from Chicago, shoot
one of their competitors dead with a Tommy gun.
Not
long thereafter, a crooked Federal Agent, Charlie Rakes (Guy Pearce) pays a
little visit to the Bondurants’ bar to demand a cut of their ill-gotten gains.
But hot-headed Forrest isn’t intimidated by the
attempted shakedown. In fact, he threatens to kill the corrupt cop with a meat
cleaver should the greedy creep ever set foot on the premises again.
Of
course, that’s not the last the lads see of either Rakes or Banner, which soon proves
problematical given that the ruthless newcomers are armed to the teeth and will
stop at nothing to get their way. That is the ominous premise which sets in
motion the grisly goings-on which ensue in Lawless, a picture dedicated to an
almost senseless celebration of gratuitous violence.
Directed
by John Hillcoat (The Road), the movie was adapted from “The Wettest County in
the World,” a supposedly-factual, historical novel by Matt Bondurant (grandson
of Jack). The picture opens with a warning that what you’re about to witness is
“based on a true story,” a claim presumably intended to discourage the viewer
from questioning the veracity of the screen version, too.
However,
what’s served up is basically a comical cross of Sam Peckinpah and Looney Tunes
so farcical that the audience at the screening this critic attended shared a
few hearty laughs at moments when none was intended. An over-the-top indulgence
in sadism strictly recommended for folks with a stomach for gangster fare so
gruesome as to border on the cartoonish.
Fair (1 star)
Rated R for profanity, sexuality, nudity and graphic violence.
Running time: 115 minutes
Distributor: The
Weinstein Company
To see a trailer for Lawless, visit:
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