Live By Night

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Joe Coughlin (Ben Affleck) is a small-time crook that is offered the chance to help a crime lord run his empire during the prohibition. He slowly rises through the ranks of the mob, making power plays. Now, I was excited for Live By Night. Recently, Affleck has really sold me as an actor, and I’ve always been impressed with him as a director. This movie gives a strong performance from Ben Affleck. For the most part, this movie is really well directed. Unfortunately, the story is a bit of a mess. I get the feeling that this is supposed to take place over a decade or so, but it’s never all that clear. There are points where I do notice Affleck’s direction actually suffer a little bit (something I never wanted to say as someone who has always loved Affleck as a director). I wasn’t a huge fan on a lot of the quick cuts used during the shoot out scenes. They really made the action tough to make out a lot of the time. The ending was a problem for me as well. There were several points of this movie where I felt like it could’ve easily wrapped up, but it kept going. The movie had a ton of things going on in it, and it was really hard to keep track sometimes. Occasionally, the movie did hit some pretty predictable beats. Other times, it did actually surprise me a little bit. Those aforementioned shootouts aside, the rest of the time, Affleck’s direction was really damn good (something I have come to expect from the man). I have already mentioned Affleck’s lead performance, but I don’t want to take away from the rest of the cast either. All of them actually do a tremendous job. The standout for me actually might be Elle Fanning. In this movie alone, she plays a naïve teenager, an angry (sometimes downright terrifying) zealot, and a frightened girl. She has maybe twenty minutes of screen time. Overall, I think this could’ve been a much tighter film if they just narrowed the focus. Ultimately, despite solid direction, costume design, and performances, it ends up being an uneven and disappointing mess.

5 / 10