A Most Violent Year (2014)

Not so Gangster Gangsters

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Welcome back to Shelf Warmers, where this week, Andrew and Sam go back in time to 1981 to watch Oscar Issac and Jessica Chastain tackle the business of selling oil. Will this movie stay on the shelf, or will we dip it in oil and watch it burn bright?

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Edited by: Rachel Mihatov

Instagram: @shelfwarmers.podcast

Next Week's Episode: The Campaign

Episode Transcript

(00:12):
Welcome to Shelf Warmers. I'm Sam.
And I'm Andrew. This is a podcast where we watch
and discuss movies from roughly 2012 to 2020, AKA the pump and
dump period of Hollywood. Not exactly a golden age, but
definitely time of high fertility for Tinseltown.
So fertile, in fact, that we didn't see many of the movies
produced. I see if they're good, bad or

(00:34):
just men. We're going to cover it all.
If you heard about it and didn'twatch it, well, now we're going
to. And today we're covering 2014's
A Most Violent Year. It stars Oscar Isaac as a fuel
supplier who tries to adhere to his own moral compass amid the
rampant violence, corruption anddecay that threaten his family
and business. The film also stars.

(00:56):
Jessica Chastain and Albert Brooks.
David O yellow, O yellow, reallygood.
In this. Is it David O Yellow O?
Yellow one, some of that. Great guy.
Great guy. So let's address two things
right at the start. One, change the pod name.
First two episodes it was hurt as good.
Didn't watch? Now it's shelf warmers.
Shelf warmers. Watch us have like a horrible 10

(01:18):
year legal battle social network.
If you were the inventors of shelf formers, you would have
invented shelf formers. Which I think is more of a
succinct way to summarize and say our our idea.
Yeah, I like, I like it. It conjures up images of this
massive Criterion closet like. A warm shelf because it does

(01:42):
look warm inside that Criterion closet.
Almost like an Alexandria, just like huge archive of mainly DVDs
from this 20/12/2020 era. Maybe good, maybe bad.
But let's also say that we watched a good one.
It's a good movie. We did it.
I might even say great. Great.
We gave it 3 1/2 so. That's great.
That's really good. That's really good.

(02:04):
That's not great. Well, I was telling Bash before
we recorded our wonderful sound engineer that I was thinking of
bumping it up to A4. Wow, I agree with your original
assessment. It was a 3.5 for me, but you
know, it's still good and we'll get that later with our new
rating system. So you got to stay tuned for

(02:25):
that. I mean exclusive.
Look at our new rating system for shelf warmers.
We're not. Going to tell you what it is
now. No, you have to wait and watch,
just like it back in the day. It's event podcasting.
That's right. The exclusive look at our new
rating system. I think it's also notable that
this film is directed by JC Chandor.
Yes, the director of Craven the Hunter.

(02:47):
Craven the Hunter, which is actually, it's pretty funny and
it kind of emphasizes again, ourwhole idea with this show of
like 11 years ago. This guy was making this movie.
Yeah, this gritty, low budget A20. 4 drama.
And folks, let me tell you this.When I sell a 24, I knew it was
going to be good. I knew that we were in for a
treat because a 24 makes the best movies, the best movies

(03:11):
ever. It's a given.
It's a given. You see a 24, you know it's
going to be weird. It's gonna be out there, but
it's gonna be good. But you're, you're excited.
You're gonna want to buy a $45.00 Blu-ray they put out.
And you're gonna want to buy like a lighthouse hoodie and
like a Nosferatu hoodie. Or some like.
Anuka Gems hoodie. After sun stationary.
Oh, after sun gun. Yeah, so when you watch After

(03:35):
Sun, you kill yourself, right? After, but it's branded.
It's branded, right? Yeah, so let's kind of get into
the movie itself. And when it came out, came out
December 31st, 2014, just so it could play in the award season,
right? You know, it was an Oscar
contender, I guess, but I don't think it picked up anything.
Yeah, like a lot of our movies on this pod, they're kind of

(03:55):
Oscar Beatty fair. Sure.
Be a very Oscar Beatty. So this kind of interesting.
I know exactly what I saw instead of this from last week.
Really. Yeah.
This came out one week after theSony hack and the Interview came
out and I rented it as soon as it came out and I love the
Interview. I think it's kind of an amazing

(04:17):
movie that or let me say this, Ithink it's a good movie, a good
movie that was made amazing justby circumstance.
You know, it kind of is. It's incredible as this piece of
political rebellion and the factthat it still came out is still
so impressive. And Sony got hacked and some
people lost their jobs over thismovie that is a bunch of Dick

(04:40):
jokes and Kim Jong Un getting hit by a rocket launcher.
And I I love it. That's where we were as a
country. I've never seen it.
You've never seen The Interview?No, that's next episode also
coming out. You know, reward season.
We got Selma, we got American Sniper and Into the Woods and

(05:02):
Unbroken, you know, so there wasa kind of like a huge string of
those award movies that I think of not really fondly because I
don't think I saw American Sniper, I saw Selma, I saw Into
the Woods. I saw Into the Woods also that
week. I remember seeing Into the Woods
because that was like a moment and I saw, I definitely saw
Selma because we went as a class.

(05:24):
Oh really? To go see Selma it?
Was a field trip. This is I It's funny to mention
this. I haven't thought about this in
years. We saw Selma, and this has
genuinely been like something I've been trying to track down.
It was a class trip. We went to go see Selma and we
saw it like upstate New Jersey at this AMC in a mall, and it

(05:45):
felt like we were walking into astadium, like the seats were
that steep. And wow, like this whole class
of what were we, 7th grade? Yeah, yeah, 7th grade.
Was it like an IMAX screen? I think I was just a little bit
smaller than I am now, so it felt bigger, but it was like it
literally, I was getting like Vertigo walking up the steps.

(06:06):
And I remember thinking like weeks later, this theatre is so
awesome. I have to get back here.
And I swear to God, like I've sat down at the computer and
looked up this theatre and have not found it.
It's like lost to time. Lost the time?
Yeah, it probably shut down, I guess.
It's possible. And now it's used as a
Colosseum. So I saw that for my brother's

(06:29):
15th birthday, he brought all ofhis friends to see Selma.
I don't know why he chose that movie.
It's a good movie, but it's not.He was never interested in the
civil rights movement. He still is not, to this day,
not interested in Martin Luther King.
He didn't really seem that excited for this movie either.
But he, like, really wanted to go just suddenly to see it for
his birthday. And the thing I remember was

(06:49):
that I tried to sit next to him and his friend got weird about
that. He won this the next time on his
birthday. So his friend was like, no, you
can't sit there. And I was like, what?
You can't sit there? And I was like, I don't care.
And it was like tense. That's the whole for the whole
screen of the movie, because I was going to sit there.
I feel like that lingers to thisday.
Like, obviously in a movie theater, you're not going to
talk to someone, but you kind ofwant to sit next to who you want

(07:11):
to sit next. To exactly.
And like to be like, no, you can't.
When I'm his brother, I thought it was a bold choice on his part
and I won. But I remember being like, I
were being kind of pissed off during Selma, one, because of
the seeing thing and two, the racism.
True, absolutely true. Also notable about Selma, it's

(07:32):
shot by Bradford Young. Who shot this movie?
Who? Shot this now most of the movies
we picked for the pod we have not seen.
Yes, but in all transparency, I did watch this movie in 2015.
You did. I did, but it was long enough
ago where I did not remember a single thing about it.

(07:53):
I think that's OK. Most of the movies we watched
during this period, unless it's like, you know, a favorite and
we've seen multiple times, have not stayed with us.
So if you saw it when it came out and it's like 11 years ago
at this point, I understand. And OK, like I remember the
moments surrounding my actual viewing of the film.
I was, we're actually recording this in my grandma's garage and

(08:16):
I actually watched the movie right in that room over there in
that living room. And I used to come here on the
weekends. And what I would do is there
used to be a FiOS like on demandoption.
And basically what it did was ithad all the movies that were on
demand listed A-Z and I was ableto just go through every single
one that was included on the movie channels.

(08:39):
So it was like 200 movies. And my favorite thing I used to
do in 7th grade on the weekends,I would sit down and literally
just like click the down arrow and go through all these movies
title by title and just like, what am I gonna watch?
What am I gonna watch? This was 2015.
So I think I was maybe aware because it must have been like
May or like, you know, towards the spring of 2015.

(09:01):
So I was, I'm almost entirely sure I was aware of Force
Awakens coming out. Oh yeah.
I think I saw Oscar Isaac. And I was like, Oh my God.
Like this guy is going to be in Star Wars.
What is this movie, a most violent year?
What is this, like a gangster like Goodfellas, like this?
This movie has to RIP. And I remember being incredibly
wet down and like thinking it was boring.

(09:24):
Yeah, it is slow, but in a way that now I love, right, Right.
And I also had that thought, too, of the way Oscar Isaac's
not in anything anymore. That's what I was thinking too.
Really. IMDb.
Yeah, really. Him and Chastain both have
slowed down a lot of the last few years, and I don't know if
that's because they aren't getting offers or the movies
that they are interested in making aren't getting made, but

(09:46):
I thought it was very interesting to see some of these
people. It seems like they did scenes
from a marriage together. Yeah.
And then they quit acting. Yeah, which as we know is very
famous for their sexual tension.And I I, I had no idea that they
had that they had a history together.
So seeing as like seeing them this movie, I was like, wow.
They famously had a fair rumors in the same vein as Bradley

(10:07):
Cooper did with Lady Gaga, because on the red carpet, I, I
believe the Cannes Film Festival, they had a moment
where he smelled her arm as she like extended it.
And I think he like, started to kiss her arm up and down and
like his wife was there and his way like didn't care.
His wife's like whatever. Like he's just being like a

(10:28):
flirt and like, they're old friends.
They're trying to sell it. But the Internet.
Was like they're fucking we. We have no doubt in our mind
that these two are having sex. And there's like intense scenes
in that scenes. From there's intense sex scenes
in that. So they must have been feeling
something. I actually the other night I did
watch, I did watch the Oscar, a song from 2019.

(10:50):
The star's born when they sang together.
It's palpable. That's real tension.
That's a real tension. That was like, was that the last
great Oscar moment? Well, I'm just Ken, maybe.
I'm just counter. Maybe keep my wife's name by
your motherfucking mouth. Oh.
We'll save we'll save our Will Smith slap story for another
episode. Yeah, maybe for a Will Smith

(11:11):
movie. Yeah, or an Oliver Stone movie.
And that's a tease. That's.
A tease. Yeah, I would watch this movie.
And my first thought was, wow, it feels like David Harbour
should be in this movie. He's definitely in this, you
know, class of actor totally in this kind of movie.
Yeah, he's in the same as Alessandra Nova, Alexander Nova,
the guy that plays. Novola.

(11:31):
Peter, who's also. Great.
And he was just he was just in the brutalist and he was in The
Sopranos prequel movie. Oh yeah.
In a leading role, many. Saints of Newark.
The Mace. What a stupid name.
And that movie's a piece of shit.
Really. And that's I love The Sopranos.
I think it's one of the greatestpieces of art that we have in

(11:53):
this century, but that movie fucking sucks.
So how does this movie hold up for you in the grand catalog of
gangster movies? Because I see you as kind of an
aficionado for those. Because I saw, I saw some
similarities, but I also saw like a lot of restraint in this
movie. Well, it's kind of like a key
part of the movie, I think OscarIsaac's character, Abelle
Morales, which is. A full name Abelle, like I'm

(12:16):
saying Abelle. And right at the beginning
Albert Brooks says Abelle. I was like, oh, is he?
He's saying it wrong. I'm like, Oh no, that's just
how. That's just his name.
Yeah, a bell. What separates a bell from, say,
Michael Corleone or, you know, these other gangsters, is he
wants to be morally right. He wants to be on this path of,

(12:37):
you know, being clean and makinga business in this country the
right way. That's what he says in the
movie. Everything I've done is the
right way. And I think that's a really
intriguing thing when you have acharacter placed in 1981 New
York City. So like the odds are stacked
against him to be this, you know, moral compass through

(12:58):
this, you know, like we said, corrupt city.
It just makes for really good drama where you have this guy
constantly fighting to be good and do the right thing, but
everything is against him. The whole, his whole world is
crumbling in this movie and it'slike you said, it's a slow burn,
but it's really intriguing. Yeah, he's interesting to me.

(13:20):
Just, you know, the opening credits of also, I would say
really solid opening credits. I'm always a sucker for good
song and solid opening credits. But the whole time he's on a
jog, Yeah. And I was like, oh, wow, he's
like a mob boss. Because that was kind of my
assumption, Like, oh, I've neverseen a criminal like him.
He feels vulnerable. He's very exposed on this run.

(13:41):
You know, he's just, he's just wearing the same stuff as Rocky.
But it's a very open way to start his character.
I'm like, oh, he doesn't care that he's out.
And he's not like out with guards.
He's just doing what he does. Yeah, they play the Marvin Gaye
song and he's running around thecity.
It kind of, it's reminiscent of like those old movies, like the
70s, eighties, kind of like the beginning of Dog Day where they

(14:03):
play the Owen John's song and they, you know, the city's
waking up. Yeah.
This is a great like New York inthe Winter movie.
It looks incredible. Yeah.
I mean, we mentioned that Bradford Young shot it, but he
really owns the digital look in this.
It's really good. I mean, he goes on to shoot a
rival, which I think is probablyhis best looking movie.
Sure, but he also did Pariah, the D Reese movie from Oh yeah,

(14:26):
2011, which is a really good like independent movie that I I
watched over COVID and I was like, this is good.
And then I was like, who shot this?
And it was Bradford Young, but he just did.
What was it solo? He did shoot solo which actually
looks really good too. I will begrudgingly say yes.
It does. Solo does look great.
Yeah. It's also, it's also nice that

(14:48):
we start this story not trying to do an origin story.
It does. It does just throw you into it.
He's established, but he's stillrising, which is nice.
And it was just a sigh of reliefwhen I heard Albert Brooks has
like 1 of the first lines of this movie because I thought
it'd be more like Drive where he's antagonist, right?
He's he's like he's a third lead.
He does a lot like he he has solo scenes.

(15:11):
I love Albert Brooks. He looks like Colin Firth in
this because he has the straighthair and it's like Haley threw.
Me off really funky you have like he has like an iconic, you
know, curly hair mop top and hishair is straight in this yeah.
Everyone this movie looks reallygood, but also they have a
unique look the way Oscar Isaacsnot like he's sleek and he's

(15:33):
handsome, but he's not doing anything crazy.
Same for Chastain too. They're they're they're very
much are owning the 80s aesthetic in a way that makes
them like obviously they're bothobviously they're both very hot
people, but they look very normal and that's kind of the
idea they're chasing. They're not, you know, so
sleeked out and rich. They have a normality to them.
And they do have those incredible winter cuts.

(15:55):
Incredible. Some of the best winter cuts.
Yeah, I, I also just love that he's not dealing like, you know,
with criminals in the opening scene.
Like, it's not trying to set a tone of that.
He's just dealing with these oldJewish men who are like, hidden
in shadow in the opening shot. It's great.
It looks incredible. But he's not even bargaining
like, you know, with the mob. He's just talking to these old

(16:17):
Jewish men who just own this land.
That's all he wants. And that's his goal with the
movie. He just wants this one piece of
land. And so great to ground him in
that. And it kind of starts off right
from the beginning where he's trying his best to get further
in this business. And what I like about it is it's
not like he's a mobster. He's not a gangster.
He's just like this business owner and he's trying to make

(16:37):
it, and it's just a corrupt industry.
Yeah. And it's an like this fuel
industry of New York in the 80s.I have no idea of what this was
like. I didn't either.
But you totally buy into it that, yeah, it would have some
criminal elements. You know, his wife, whose father
has some mob connections. That's not really.
And I thought they were going toshow the father, and I'm glad

(16:58):
they don't. He's kind of like a presence
looming over the movie. Her father and her brother and
her family, like, like as they reference probably 5 or 6 times.
And you keep waiting for them toshow up and handle things they
never do. But it's great restraint on
their part because you feel their presence on the movie.
Because she's almost more of a gangster than he is.
Yeah, he's, he's, he's like, afraid of her a little bit.

(17:19):
Like she's got, like, she's got like an edge to her.
That really makes her such an interesting character.
Yeah, she's like you. Like, you better handle this
because you're not going to likeit.
Like when I handle it like I'm gonna do some crazy stuff.
And you do get the sense that she is her father's daughter.
Yes, World. And I love how they showcase
that like, you know, through shadow cuz that one shot where

(17:40):
the feds come to the door and try to buy time so they can hide
some stuff and the kids have friends over.
Yeah, it's the daughters. Birthday party.
Yeah. And he is by the door, and he
still has light coming in on hisface.
And she's completely hidden in shadow.
She's the one they underestimate.
And they think, OK, you know, she's a mob bosses like, you
know, like kid. But.
But she's way smarter than he is.
Yeah. And she's also totally amoral in

(18:03):
some ways, in a way that he justcannot but, you know, do.
Yeah. So I mean, he has a lot to prove
in this world. Yeah, and I love the scene
where, you know, he hits the deer.
Oh my God. Insane.
Yeah. Made me jump out of my seat.
They're driving down this road, they're having this dialogue

(18:23):
scene, and then bam, fucking windshield cracks, car spins
out. Oh my God, Are you OK?
Are you OK? Like insane.
And I, and I was kind of upset at first.
I was like, OK, you're going to do the thing where he has to go
over and kill the deer and put the deer out of his misery and
he gets the tire iron because he's because he didn't have a
gun. He's a businessman.

(18:44):
Yeah, He can't work up the courage to beat this deer to
death, which I guess like I can understand.
And then another jump scare moment, like bang, bang, bang,
these shots go ring out a bell, jumps.
And then he turns around and Jessica Chastain has this, like,
gun and shot the deer. It's like, and I think she calls
him a pussy or something. Yeah, she does call him pussy.

(19:07):
It's like, Oh my God. Yeah, yeah.
So she takes care. Of it, she's hard, she's really
hard. What I like about that scene,
and like we said it was it's a slow burn movie, but there are
these intense bursts of violenceand noise, and the movie has
like two or three, I think, incredible moments of tension.
And I think those moments are heightened by those more softer,

(19:30):
quieter dialogue. Scenes, Absolutely.
He loves the master shot, which is what I was thinking.
He really likes to hold the master for like a while and just
give characters space because there's always a lot of space in
between people and you really hold on that space.
It feels slow, feels raw like that and.
I guess we should cover like thebasic conflict of the movie,
which kind of starts out where he has all these fuel drivers,

(19:52):
like these people driving the trucks with all the fuel going
around the city and one of the guys gets robbed at gunpoint.
Yes, who kind of is the not the antagonist of the movie, but
he's kind of like the second protagonist in a weird way.
He's like this symbolic character that trots through the
whole movie. Kind of intermittently, yeah.
He's a, you would assume someonewho has recently has come to New

(20:16):
York. He's going to speak a lot of
English. He's new to English.
He's working this dead end job and he gets robbed and it messes
him up. Like his jaw gets broken.
Like he's messed up by this and has trauma throughout the whole
rest of the movie. Yeah, he gets pistol whipped and
thrown out of the truck, so his face is all fucked up.
His leg is busted. Oscar Isaac is furious and it we

(20:36):
get we get the sense that this is not the first robbery that's.
Happened. No, I'm going to say over the
last year they've taken 110,000 gallons yeah of fuel from him.
So he's about to close on this huge deal for this plot of land.
Which helped him to expand his Yeah.
It's going to be a huge move forhim, and then all these forces
that are not up to him are making it incredibly difficult

(20:59):
for him to keep that moral compass that he has.
And something I really like to with when they start to address
this and try to figure out how does this work for the drivers
and the Teamsters. It's a very like union movie in
a way that a lot of mob movies don't spend time on.
And there's kind of this line where a bell saying to the head
of the Teamsters, you know, it'snot like how it was like, you

(21:20):
know, back even 5-10 years ago in the early 70s and we were
driving. And you can really feel the
changing of the times and the changing of New York City in
this movie. I love that kind of thing.
And the movie is called The MostViolent Year because 1981 was
the most just statistically, they were the most crime in New

(21:40):
York City's history, which is we've actually got some crime
here in North Brunswick, NJ, it sounds like.
But you know, we said Abell has this strict moral compass and
part of that is his business sense.
So one one of the first great scenes in the movie is when
Abell is teaching some of his new salesman how to how to sell.
How to sell. Because he is straight laced,

(22:02):
like we said, like he really does not see himself as a
gangster. And I don't think he is.
I think there's moments towards the end of the film where he
kind of has to step up and kind of find some loopholes to take
power, which is really what it'sabout.
Yeah, he has to make this deal work because he falls through on
his loan because he's being investigated by.
The DA's office. Yeah, but DA's office and also

(22:25):
he's a charge because as a character of Julian, halfway to
the movie, he goes back to driving and he feels like he's
confident. So he.
So he brings a pistol because he's terrified.
He's terrified. Yeah, he's not confident.
What is he? Because there's like, it's like
his first day back and the Bell's like welcome back.
Like you're going to go and you'll make us proud.

(22:45):
Like you're you being. Bad he's always selling he's
really great to the people who work for him because of blind
confidence them in a weird way and he thinks Julian's ready and
then Julian knows he's not readyhe's still he's still terrified
getting hurt again he's. Choked up in the locker room,
getting ready to go out again. And he's like, I feel
vulnerable. And the Bell's like, that's
good, Yeah. Like we all are, yeah.

(23:05):
So and he gets robbed again though.
Which is absolutely right. And they have great chase scene.
Oh my God, that kicks off some of the greatest stuff because
it, there's a it's like a recurring shot where it's like
it's a point of view shot of the, the side view mirror.
Yeah. And you see these guys walking
up to the truck during traffic. They're holding something which
looks like a gun and you're like, fuck, like they come.

(23:26):
And part of I think the movie kind of conditions you to be a
little bit frightened because you saw this guy get pistol
whipped, you know, 40 minutes ago.
And now there's more robbers coming towards the truck.
And we don't know it yet, but hepulls out the gun and you're
like, oh. Fuck, it's about to go down and
it's got this great thing of is that you're in his POV, so you

(23:46):
feel just as terrified. But then these guys aren't
really scary like like it's these two kind of dorks, like
fuck you buddy, Like you pull a gun and that's what the fuck.
Like they're almost like, they're almost like more upset
that he pulled a gun on them. Yeah.
Then like the fact that they're obviously trying to rob him and
steal the fuel, but they're likeso mad and they're like you dumb
ass, you dumb ass, you're firingoff shot.
And they're, and they're also try to scold him for it, which

(24:08):
is kind of which is a great way like to break that tension too.
And because they don't seem likepros, and obviously Julian's not
like an assassin, you really do get the sense like, I had no
idea where this move was going. So I could see Julian getting
shot. I could see him shooting the
robbers, like I had idea where it was going to go.
Eventually they hear sirens. They hear the cops coming, and

(24:31):
the two robbers just bolt and they run, which I thought was so
kind of like, almost funny. They're like, fuck it, I'm
running. Yeah.
And they just run like a. Bitch or something?
Like come on bitch or something.Yeah, they just run full speed
and then Julian like follows them.
Meanwhile, one of the salesman, he's on a house call.
Yeah. So earlier in the movie of

(24:51):
Belle, like trains them all, like how to sell.
And and it's really I think Oscar Isaac's one of his best
moments is he's like, he's telling them how to like close
on these deals. And he's like, you have to hold
eye contact longer than you think.
And it's like one of the best moments because Oscar.
You always ask for tea. Yeah, the tea is more expensive
and we're the best. We're the best and you want to
be the best. And it's just a shot.

(25:12):
It's almost funny of like, OscarIsaac just like staring for a
little bit too long. And even one of the characters
starts laughing and Oscar Isaac's like, this is no joke.
And you're like, oh, sorry, sorry, Abell.
I bet it's not a joke. But then one of the guys there
that Abell was training earlier is on this house call and he
gets asked to go outside and check something, right?

(25:33):
He's in Union territory. Yeah, he's in Teamster country.
So as Julian is dealing with these robbers on the freeway
with the guns, this poor kid is trying to close this deal.
And then he gets punched in the face.
And it's like intercut of like Julian dealing with these guys.
This salesman getting beat up. He's thrown in the back of a
truck and taken out to this, like, dump and just dropped off.

(25:57):
Yeah. So I'm at that moment, I'm
feeling, oh, my God, a belly is screwed.
A belly is screwed. You also feel the pressure very
early on the movie because afterthe robbery, that's when that's
when the pressure starts to build.
And like, you know, a bell, his home gets broken into very early
on and it's very tense and dogs barking.

(26:18):
It's that kind of tradition. But he goes out and he sees the
guy and the guy just, I guess, the same guy from earlier, but
he just sprints. Yeah.
And a Bell's, like, awkward. He's chasing with a bat and he's
like in his bare feet. He's falling in the snow and.
It cuts his foot off, Yeah, JohnMcclane style.
Yeah. And then and then like the next
morning, like his kids are in the front yard and he's find the
handgun. My God.

(26:38):
And you're like, oh, this was a threat on his life.
This wasn't a burglary. He was like, he's like, yeah,
they just wanted the TV. They just wanted the TV.
Like he's trying to, he's tryingto de escalate stuff with his
wife because his wife. Like we said, Chastain, who's?
The daughter of the mobster, like, yeah, you could tell.
She could, you know, call her dad's buddies or whatever.
And they would handle it quick. But there's this again, like the

(27:00):
master shot of the daughter holding the handgun.
And she points it toward. Her head, she points at her
little head and you're like, andyou, you literally jump forward
the same time Jessica Chastain doesn't.
And she's like, I think she's the girl saying like Katie,
Katie, Katie. Like it's like, Oh my God, is
this girl about to shoot her fucking head off?
Like that's what I mean. Like the movie is so quiet.
So when those intense moments happen and.

(27:22):
And whole time the mom's like and I was like, Oh my God, how
long has she had this for? I don't know.
But she's so indifferent to the fact that the little girl had
the gun. It's so great from Julian.
It's POV too. I I did not think he would be as
big of a presence in this movie as he was.
And I really love just holding with him who very clearly is an

(27:47):
immigrant wants the same thing as Oscar Isaac.
They they don't ever really dress race in this movie, but
it's kind of an undercurrent you.
Know there's a moment where they're in the locker room
together and Julian starts speaking Spanish and a Bell's
like English yeah so he's like. No, none of that.
Like he. He's like, we got to play by
their rules kind. Of he feels very white, even
though Oscar Reiser, obviously he's not white, but he but he's

(28:08):
trying to play to that to fit and he wants respect.
He's surrounded by white people,you know.
Right. So he won't, he won't break the
law or kill anybody, but he willassimilate and do what he has to
do to fit the part of this American businessman.
Yeah, of 1981. And he won't beg, which

(28:28):
something I really notice is like he's always, he's always
trying to preserve his pride. Which it's very admirable for a
protagonist. Yeah, He won't ever, like, get
to the levels that some protagonists like, you know,
like in a Scorsese movie would go to.
He knows his worth. He won't go below that.
Well, right after everything falls apart with Julian, because

(28:48):
now Julian is involved in this highway freeway shooting.
I don't think anyone dies, but it's like this big deal.
He runs away from the truck. His salesman is thrown in the
dirt right after that. One of his, I think, is like one
of his key investors for his newplot of land, like, drops out.
That guy Arthur, he's like, like, I can't like, you have

(29:09):
indictments against you. I just heard about this shooting
on the freeway. Like, I'm walking.
Basically, part of the stakes ofthe whole movie is he has to pay
those Jewish guys from the beginning.
Yeah, in 30 days, 30 days. So there's a ticking clock
element. He's got press from all
different sides. And early in the film he like
secures the money from the I think it's like AI forget what
the guy's name is, I think it's Arthur.

(29:29):
Yeah, Arthur, like he's like a banker, like he was supported
him. From the start, the bank and
then the bank walks away. So like all these things again,
like all this external stuff is put on a bell.
And that ultimately leads to himkind of stooping down a level to
scrounge and get that money. Yeah.
And it's honestly hard to watch because you do feel for him,

(29:51):
like you feel how, like you said, that point of pride, like
you feel he really needs to prove himself without breaking
the law. Yeah, and it's also like an
ignorance, too. I don't think he understands the
world as well as his wife does. And that's kind of pushing point
to the whole time, like she's called a pussy, but like, she's
not wrong. He thinks everything will work

(30:11):
out like it's a movie. He's not located in reality.
Sometimes he can't face that, you know?
It's brutal. And then he ends up going to
Joseph, who's like, the head honcho of the the Jewish guys,
who's actually played by Jerry Adler, who's in The Sopranos.
Oh, yeah. So there's a lot of like, you
know, mob, mob overlap type stuff.

(30:33):
And he says, I need more time. Yeah.
And it's like this heartbreakingthing because you know how much
this all means to him. But he is kind of locked into
these two worlds, too, you know,because he's formal and
friendly, you know, with the DA,who's a great performance by
David Yellowo, right? Who is like they have respect
for each other in such a way that they shouldn't.
He goes to him in the beginning,and then the DA is like, I'm

(30:54):
just gonna level with you. Like we're gonna bring some
charges against you tomorrow, yeah.
Yeah, and it's almost odd. Like everyone's like what?
Like what? He's telling them that.
Yeah. Albert Brooks is like freaking
out. Albert Brooks again, great as
his lawyer. Yeah, who like doesn't seem to
respect him either. Like he knew that his wife was
over the years, was taking a lotof money from him and his

(31:16):
business, but just let her do itanyway because like.
She's like I was skimming off the top.
Yeah, it's interesting the way that he is always.
He's always surrounded by these crooks, but will never like he's
almost in this sense of delusionwhere where he knows bad things
are happening, but he turns a blind eye because like, he

(31:37):
understands that, you know, understands something bad is
happening in his company, but hewon't even think about it.
He won't address it. Well, they almost refer to it as
like industry practice, yes, which is like fibbing on certain
returns and stuff with the drivers like there's some common
practices because even though it's not really a mobster movie,
there are like these other oil businesses and soon after this

(32:00):
there's. A syndicate.
Yeah, there's like a meeting of the oil families and it's a
pretty great again, I think there's a lot of great scenes.
But Abell shows up to this meeting with all the oil heads
and he's like, whichever one of you is doing this, he just, he
says one word. Stop.
Yeah, he just, he just says stop.
Yeah. And it's so genuine.

(32:21):
And you look around at these shitheads who are just lying.
They're lying. They're like, we don't know.
We don't know who's doing this, Abell.
We really don't. And it's obviously one of them
because nobody would have the muscle to pull off these thefts
aside from these oil barons, basically.
So he leaves that meeting with the oil barons.

(32:43):
And you feel like you almost getthe sense that a bell is going
to snap at some point. Like, he has this such a strong
personal moral code. But again, this whole world is
crumbling around him. And I think when he asked for
more time to pay off the money, the guy's like, I gave you 3

(33:04):
days. And that's all he gets.
Yeah. And he's like, thank you.
Thank you, like, thank you, like.
And he pulls it together. He pulls it together.
And it's only then does he go and not beg.
But he bargains and he makes deals.
Yeah. And he gets the money from his
brother. And he goes to one of the oil

(33:25):
families. And he's like, I need some money
from this. So he likes, you know, gets it
all together. And that's when it comes out
that his wife has been taking money.
Yeah, it's also interesting thathis brother is never in the
movie until he needs him. Yeah, and it's kind of an
interesting thing where he also Co owns the apartment building
with him and it's very interesting.

(33:47):
Like where has he been this whole time?
So is he just more a pawn to him?
Because you can tell he, like, loves them, I guess.
But he's never brought up. He's not invited to the birthday
party. He's almost like a separate
person in his life. He's almost more of a stranger.
You know, it's kind of this weird thing.
He's maybe in high school or he's in college.
He's playing football. You're like, oh, wow.
Like, who? Who are they to each other, you

(34:09):
know? Right.
And then it comes like towards the end of the film.
So it what I like about this movie is there's all these
characters and you get the senseof like a much larger world.
Story. Absolutely.
And part of that is, you know, throughout the film on the
Radio, One of my favorite details is there's constant
chatter about these other horrible things happening in the

(34:31):
city, like stabbing on the subway, shooting on the street,
like that climate of a most violent year.
Yeah, it's also, It's not a funny movie like in a way that I
feel some of the mob movies of the last 40 years have a humor
to them because it is absurd andit's crazy they that you know,

(34:53):
that for 60 years, 100 years that they were able to like to
like just do this. There really is no sense of
humor in this movie. It's not a funny movie.
There aren't like, you know, like a lot of 1 liners, right?
It's it's very self serious. Like we said early on, you know
a bell literally says this is nojoke.
I assure you this is no joke. How do you feel this movie kind

(35:15):
of ranks up against not just in The Godfather, but like that
begins to work some more in Scorsese because I felt
similarities there in terms of protagonist and I'm curious what
your perspective is on that. I think it's definitely kind of
riffing on Scorsese stuff, but Iactually think it's more in line
with the films of Sidney Lumet. Sure.

(35:37):
Yeah, absolutely. It's.
More. Dog Day?
Really. Right.
Or like Serpico or the film I'm going to mention later as part
of our slate. But like Dog Day, like these
movies where the characters are usually a little bit more like
Scorsese likes the kind of bad guys and making the bad guys
look sympathetic and then kind of deconstructing them by the

(35:58):
end of the film. But Lumet's characters are often
more kind of like a bell, or they're morally good.
Yeah, they're morally good. They really.
Have yeah, they're really tryingto do the right thing.
Yeah, absolutely. Like Sunny in.
The. Afternoon.
And I think Oscar Isaac is very much reminiscent of like a young
Pacino. Absolutely.

(36:19):
Yeah. Telling.
You're saying he's just trying to hold together and he will
never say he's bad. He cannot admit that to himself,
which I just really, really love.
He can literally see someone shoot themselves in the head and
he won't have a reaction. And like, you're like, he's a
troubled guy. He's a really, really troubled
guy who's just trying to cling on to his innocence so, so hard.

(36:42):
But I think as an audience member, I think you admire that
because you you would only hope that you could be as strong as a
bell given these circumstances. It kind of reaches a climax at
the point in the film that I think is my favorite scene
where, you know, his trucks havebeen getting robbed.
He has like the scanner in his car that all the trucks are

(37:04):
connected to, and he's driving down the street and he gets word
that another robbery is taking place.
And he's like, where is it? Where is it, Kathy?
Where is it? Like he's talking to the
dispatcher and the driver's like, we're over here on this
street, whatever in New York. And Oscar Isaac's like, I'm
right there, I'm coming. And you're like, what the fuck

(37:24):
is about to happen? So the truck driver is like on
the street, like pointing. And Oscar Isaac like sees his
truck, his truck, it's his company, his fuel is barreling
away down the street. And he just turns and he starts
gunning his car, following this truck.
Yeah, he gets called by someone,someone's like, oh, well, Cape

(37:46):
Crusader or something like that,because he feels like a
vigilante in this scene. He goes hard.
It's insane. So he's following the truck
through New York City. Eventually, the truck, like,
goes down this side road, and they end up on the tracks, you
know, a train. And Oscar Isaac's just, like,
following him, following him. And again, like, this idea of,
like, OK, now the movie has hit,like, another gear.

(38:08):
Like, I was genuinely moving my face closer to the screen in
this part, especially when they go into the tunnel and you see,
yeah, you see the red lights of the truck.
And Oscar Isaac's, like, trying to see it, trying to see it.
And the red lights just get further and further and they
fade away and you're like, God damn it, these guys are going to

(38:28):
get away with it again. Again.
Yeah, and honestly, like, you know, respect the Oscar Isaac
and respect to a bell cuz I would have given up.
Absolutely. I would have ran away.
But then something kind of crazyhappens where I would have been.
Like I would have been like, ring the a bell.
Ring the A. Bell let me took my damn truck.

(38:49):
TKO, let's get this guy out of here.
He comes out of the tunnel and the fucking truck is turned
over. Flipped.
And it's like, oh, thank God, thank God.
So then a bell gets out of his car.
The one driver is dead and. Smashed in.
It's brutal. So you're like, OK, I guess the
fuel's fine. And the one guy, I think it's

(39:10):
the same guy from earlier from the Julian, yes, shooting,
correct. He starts running and I was
crying. I was like, God damn it.
So now it's a foot chase, Yeah. And it keeps going.
And it's handheld. Oh, it's awesome.
It looks great. And also because that first
scene, a bell is running, you buy that he can keep up with

(39:31):
this guy because they're runningfor a really long time and they
run down the street. They end up on the subway and
there's that great. Again, the tension of him being
on the subway car, seeing the guy but not looking at him.
Yeah, he's hiding his head, his face.
And it's like, you know, reminiscing, I guess, The
Godfather and stuff. Now on 5th St.

(39:51):
Right, approaching the station and then he fucking tackles.
He tackles something, right? The doors about to close.
Yeah. And just pistol whips him over
and over again. He's exploding this moment.
This is him getting out all the bent of anger because he didn't
really want to kill the guy. Like, you know, he wants the
information. He's just whack them over and
over again. And it is kind of satisfying

(40:12):
when he tackles him. And then it gets a little scary
when he starts punching and punching when you're like, Oh my
God, is he going to kill this guy?
And then the guy's face is busted and he presses the gun
like into his eye and you're like Jesus Christ.
Please, please, please. Yeah.
I was thinking about Dune also in the sense that Oscar is like,

(40:32):
you know, plays the head of a family who's very concerned
about a fuel. And, you know, I was like, oh,
wow, this, this comeback. You may think of Dune, which is
not really anything. I just thought that was kind of
funny. I was thinking of a Dune in the
way that. What if you kind of did Dune but
it was like a mobster gangster thing?
That's probably the most interesting way to do it.
Two families. I like Dune but like if that was

(40:54):
kind of like a because I think of Dune.
Is Dune so big that if there waslike a smaller side to it, it
just like dude hit this empire? I'd be very interested in that.
That would be kind of cool, actually.
Then you have the young kid. I guess that's basically just
Godfather. Shit, we're reinventing the
wheel here. They make godfather Dune.

(41:16):
I do like though, and this probably is true once again,
that like there is a syndicate like for the fuel industry.
And I do think that'd be funny if just like, you know, for
every field you were in, there was a syndicate.
Yeah. Like, you know, the paper supply
syndicate, there's a plumber syndicate.
It probably isn't unions too, but just like.

(41:38):
There's a sit down that has to take place every like 3 years.
Yeah, like, you know, like, you know, like I work in a library
and I would love if, like, in order to get things done, I had
to be like, All right, everyone,we're going to meet tonight.
Are we still doing Dewey Decimal?
Dewey Decimal does this. There does it go.
Children's reading Does it stay or does it go?

(41:58):
It's got to stay. It's.
Got to go the biography section.Are we over it?
Do we really need to know all about these people?
The seventh Trump biography is at the shelf.
Do we want it or do we want to keep the Martin Short biography?
Marty Short all the way. The Grinch, is he?
Is he gone this year? Does your library have a good

(42:19):
biography section? Oh, totally, yeah.
I don't think I've ever been to your library.
You would love it, You know why?Why they're books?
We like movies, we don't read books.
Wait, what? Huh.
I I thought I read this movie. I did have captions on.
I tried to throw in the captionswhen we do.

(42:40):
A It was hard to hear. I I also have captions on so
maybe that's a mixed issue or maybe we're getting too old.
What? Huh.
Huh. Yeah, a Bell's got this guy at
gunpoint. It seems like he's about to blow
his fucking head off, and then he kind of just again gets his
composure back and he's like, let him go.
Yeah, he lets him go. And the guy is like not, he's

(43:02):
not in a hurry. He's like standing there panting
like hold his eyes. He's like, and then he kind of
will because he's been given hislife.
He drops a bomb on him. Yeah, he's like, I don't know
who these guys are. I just delivered it to Key.
Whatever the West. Point No, no, he didn't say
that. He's like, just so you know,

(43:23):
man, just so you know, man, I don't work for anyone, right?
I don't work for anybody. He's just doing it because he he
saw an opportunity. And he's like, I just deliver it
to whatever port. Yeah.
And Oscar Isaac knows there's only one guy who has that port.
Yeah, and it's. One of those lying fucks from
the oil Baron. Sit down.
And he confronts him in the barbershop, which is a great

(43:45):
scene. Great.
And he folds instantly and you see.
It on his face he looks so OK because.
These guys are wannabe like gangsters because they're not
actually gangsters, man. They're just like these.
There's these guys who were who was forced into being tough and
they aren't tough, you know? And it's got this great scene of
him just like completely realizing, oh, he could call the
feds on me. And they're all afraid of that.
They're all so afraid of that. So in that moment, you kind of

(44:07):
do see a bell become like this, more powerful.
Yeah. Because he's always known that
it was them and he also probablyfigures multiple of them and it
is multiple of them. We don't really get an answer on
who because he just, he knows that he's content with that.
He kind of now has put fear intoall of them.
He's a top dog now. He's getting this land.
He's going to expand. Nobody's going to fuck with him

(44:27):
again. And he kind of blackmails one of
the oil barons to giving him that extra sum of money to pay
for his new move on this other report.
And he gets what he wants. He gets the land.
He's top dog. He's the best in the biz.
He signs. He's there with his wife and
Albert Brooks. And he's celebrating.

(44:48):
He's looking down the city, seeing this view.
This is all his. Yeah.
And that's cut short because here comes back, Julian.
Yeah, Julian shows up with a gun, the same gun from the
truck. You know, highway shooting.
Yeah, because because he had been told to turn himself in
earlier, and the plan was he wasgoing to do that.
But he's like to Oscar Isaac, he's like, Oh my God, I'm a weak

(45:09):
man, I can't do this, I can't dothis.
And he runs, and he escapes fromthe police again.
And that leads to one of my favorite shots, which is Oscar
Isaac's facing the camera in theforeground.
Background's out of focus, and you just see Julian dart.
And Oscar Isaac doesn't even turn around.
He just like, closes his eyes. He's like, fuck, like, yeah,
nothing I can do about that. And the cops just, like, trot

(45:30):
through the snow trying to grab them.
Yeah. And he gets away.
It's also great cuz the yellow on him are so calm.
There's never a bloat. It's never like why are you
investigating me? He understands that he's doing
his job. And I wonder if that's also
something just with They are theonly two people who aren't white
in this whole movie. So they kind of, they kind of
have an understanding of each other in a weird way because

(45:51):
they know that the world's against them, you know, So there
is a sense of respect still. And he even says to Oscar Isaac,
he's like, you know, like, you aren't a felon.
Yeah, we're probably not a felon.
He's willing to work with him because he isn't.
He really does not want to put him in jail.
Well, because when he, he's trying to find him before that
and he goes to his sister's apartment, like his Julian's
apartment, Yeah. And the sister, like, lies.

(46:14):
And she's like, he's not here. Like he's, I don't know where he
is. And then Oscar Isaac's, like,
poking around the apartment. Yeah.
Julian bursts out of the door. Yeah.
Jumps out the window. And Oscar Isaac looks at
Julian's sister and he's like, you know, I know why you lied,
but I'm your best option. Yeah, yeah.
Oh geez, like he's probably right.
Yeah, but also he's speaking in Spanish during that scene.

(46:35):
That's the only, that's the onlyscene.
He right has it the whole time he's trying to relate to this
person cuz he probably he probably he understands Julian.
And you could see how he could be like a good businessman or a
salesman cuz he's, you know, he's working all these people
from different angles. Like we talked about it in
class, like, and every scene's like a negotiation or a
seduction or whatever it is. Like every scene is a

(46:57):
negotiation in this movie, and there's a final negotiation at
the end. Yeah, and he's so honest.
Like, you know, Julian asks him if he gave him a better shot
than, you know, he deserved. He's like, no, because he didn't
think Julian was good enough. It's same way Julian also was
mad at him if he wanted to be a sales guy, but he didn't think
he had it in them and Julian. So he has his gun to his head.

(47:20):
He's pointing Oscar Isaac, he's pointing at everyone else he's
got. Tears in his eyes.
Erratic and Oscar Isaac does notgive him the sympathy that he
wants. He doesn't be like, no man, your
life's worth more. He just stares at him in the
same way that, you know, he was afraid to look at him before.
He didn't want to see it, and now he's just staring at him.
He's got to face it. And that same stare he talked
about earlier in the movie? Closing the deal.

(47:41):
And then poor Julian's like, take care of my family.
And you're like, Oh, no. He almost wants Julian dead
because he is. He's that criminal aspect now,
you know, and he just wants thatcompletely gone from his life.
He's no sympathy anymore. And then I think in the most
violent part of the whole film, at the end he shoots himself.
Julian shoots himself. I don't know if that angle, you

(48:03):
know, was right for that gunshot.
He kind of puts it right near his chin up and it goes and it
was backwards and hits the tank a little bit.
I was like. Does it go back and?
To the to the left. I think it actually.
Does to quote the bullet of JohnF Kennedy?
Yeah, to quote the bullet. To quote the bullet, that magic.
Bullet. The magic, That special bullet.
Yeah. But I think it leads to, you

(48:24):
know, the ending of the film, but also, I think one of the
more poetic looking shots of thebullet going through Julian,
killing him, blood's red, blood squirting everywhere.
Yeah. The bullet then goes into a
tanker right behind Julian. Yeah.
And this black oil is like, bubbling, gurgling out of
tanker. So you have Julian's dead body

(48:46):
on this white snow with, Yeah, red blood sprayed everywhere.
Yeah. And then you have this black
sludge spraying out onto the snow.
Yeah. And a bell just walks.
Over. Over the body.
Over the body. He ignores them completely.
He grabs a white handkerchief and just shove it into the hole
to save that oil. And you do get the sense that a
bell is kind of fully formed. Absolutely.

(49:08):
And he probably is gonna run theshow.
It was kind of like there will be blood a little bit.
And I saw that connection too. I was like, oh shit, oil wars.
Oil wars. Yeah, people do anything for it.
It's that black gold. It's pretty cool as a movie.
He is cool. He is cool.
Abell, you're pretty cool. Love Abell.
Love Abell. But, you know, Jessica Chastain

(49:33):
also gives a really good performance.
They have some really good, you know, domestic scenes together.
How do you feel about this? I wanted a sex scene cuz, cuz
they're kind of an odd, like, you know, the couple in a movie
where they are still in love thewhole time and they still have a
lot of affection for each other and you don't see the kids most
of me like he is, he is so clearly in love with her and not

(49:55):
in love with the family aspect of it.
Like he doesn't really seem to care about his kids, but like he
loves her and you know, like, you know, she's his rock, right?
And they kiss and is very passionate.
But I I thought there should have been one sex scene.
I thought so because I I noticedit not while I was watching, but
I was looking at the IMDb page and it was like sex and nudity.

(50:15):
None. Wow and.
I was like this is like an R rated a 24.
And they're horny for each other.
Yeah, like let them bang something.
Let. Them bang.
Almost horny, yeah. Ring down a bell, He's tapping
in. I guess honestly, I take that
back. His plate was pretty full.
He had a lot of shit. The deal?
Is good enough. He's got like a blue chew.

(50:39):
What is that? It's like a boner pill that they
always, it's a boner pill that they always sell on podcasts.
Yeah, I don't know anything about that blue choose, that's
your prerogative. You got any production facts for
me? I do.
So the score was done by Alex Ebert.
I don't know if there's any, I'mnot familiar with Roger Ebert,

(51:01):
but I thought it was kind of a stand out part of the film.
It kind of, it adds to like thatslow kind of rhythmic momentum
of the story. Alex kind of sighted Scarface as
an influence with the kind of synthy 80 dirty grungy sound.
I heard some godfather in it too.
It definitely feels like first. Few notes of.
It echoes the main. Score though, like there's like

(51:24):
a little bit of like a a godfather sound to that.
It is kind of like this micro epic feel, which I kind of like
sure how it is kind of this low budget thing, but he said.
It's a synthesis of sort of calling card themes and extended
atmospheres. There's horns and flutes and
strings, but there's also sort of these meditative synthetic

(51:44):
beds underlying, which I thoughtwas a good quote.
Yeah, there's a good quote. The box office.
I can't imagine it did well, butit probably did better than, you
know, we would think. Well, because it was 2014, so
people were still going to the movies.
Well, no. Oh, never mind.
The budget was only 20 million and it made 12.

(52:05):
This is a bomb. This is a bomb.
Kind of a bomb, but I mean, you and I were aware of it.
It's been on the shelf warming up.
Warming up. It's a nice medium cold it is.
I think we should talk about thea 24 element of this because.
This is early on. This is the same year as Ex
Machina, so you know. So Oscar Isaac was in the Ex
Machina A24A most valent year circle, so he was an indie

(52:26):
darling. Yeah, I mean, this is Ex
Machina, this is Slow West, thisis the end of the tour.
This is Room the Witch like. This is when they're just
starting to. Hit and I think I've actually
had like a awareness of a 24. Probably you did too in this
time. Where it was like, like the
witch was the first one I reallywas aware of.
Yeah, because it was like, OK, we had like this cool indie

(52:47):
studio doing all these cool movies that we want to go see.
I don't know if It Comes By Night which came out.
Yes, 2016 maybe. Somewhere around there, like
that was when a 24 was like fullforce.
I was like, OK, this movie's boring as hell, but it looks
good so I guess that's what theyneed something and I.
I joked earlier, but obviously they do have some stinkers now

(53:08):
as they continue to expand. But but, but I think for a while
they really were a true mark of quality.
It was cool cuz you, you know, we had this, especially at that
time, we were all invested on Jurassic World and Force Awakens
and all that stuff. But we also we're kind of
dipping our toe into more serious works when we were 1314.

(53:28):
Whatever more violent work you would say.
Most violent. The most violent work, Yeah.
A most violent, but it is, again, it's interesting to see
in this pump and dump era that we're citing how a 24 was a part
of that, absolutely half of that.
Yeah. Like I said, the most violent
year for the city of New York. Jessica Chastain got all this

(53:54):
vintage Armani clothes for the film to kind of emphasize that
new money look. Yeah, Javier Bardem was
initially going to play a bell. See, I didn't think about that
in the sense that I almost felt a bell should have been a little
bit older. He reads very young in this.
Oscar Isaac was probably only inhis early 30s.
I did think that when they were like when we were doing this,

(54:14):
when we were. 15 years ago I waslike when you were like 17.
But I also liked Oscar Isaac performance so much them it's
always more interesting that he is younger.
Right. He's hungry.
Yeah. And like we've kind of been
saying, he's a little bit naive,but ultimately, I think he
sticks to his guns. But once Javier Barden dropped
out, Chastain recommended Oscar Isaac because they went to

(54:36):
Juilliard together. Oh, so they've known each other
for even longer? Yeah, they've been doing scenes
since they were like 20. They've been scenes from a
marriage even longer than. Scenes from Almost Violent
night. Scenes from Juilliard.
Juilliard. The Albert Brooks role was
originally written for Stanley Tucci.
Oh, interesting. Which I thought.
I don't know if I see Tucci in that.

(54:56):
No, but I think Brooks adds a age and a grace to that role.
He cannot do his normal shtick. It's good.
It's really good. And lastly, nearly all the
graffiti in the film was added digitally, and period and period
specific to the point of licensing real pieces from
artists of the 70s and 80s to beput into the.

(55:16):
Scene. That's awesome.
That's really cool. I mean, it's, I mean, obviously
New York does not look like thattoday, covered in graffiti,
looking disgusting parts of it. But I mean, there's like a
famous quote of the New York mayor being like, New York can
drop dead, like New York was in a tough spot.
Sex booths fuel wars. Yeah, I mean taxi drivers.

(55:37):
Beautiful P coats. Terrific P coats.
And like, Oscar Isaac's peak outis like this nice tan color.
Yeah. And it's got this yellow color
grade and it's just like it's very evocative of the time.
Yeah, very evocative. So with that being said, what
are your Slate recommendations? Yeah.
So I have three films for the slate.

(56:00):
So these, again, for those who don't know, these are kind of
pairings that I would recommend you watch alongside A Most
Violent Year that I think maybe enhance it or riff on it or
maybe influences for the film. The first one I have is
Scarface, which would be positioned, you know, came out
in 1983, so two years after the film takes place.

(56:23):
We mentioned how Oscar Isaac kind of has this Pacino feel in
the film, but also I was reminded of Michelle Pfeiffer in
Scarface. Sure.
With regards to Chastain, just kind of that blonde straight
hair with the bangs and kind of the attitude she has, like she
kind of almost reminded me of Margot Robbie in Wolf.

(56:43):
Of Wall Street, Yeah, same thing.
She's talking to the DA and she's like, this is very
disrespectful. This has been very disrespectful
conversation. And she, like, flicks the
cigarette at him. And I was like, that is a pretty
cool moment. But Michelle Pfeiffer kind of
has that same attitude. And what's interesting about
Scarface is Pacino's character has no moral compass in that

(57:08):
movie, but he's, you know, striving for this, you know,
American Dream. And there's a moment in the
script where he's like, where Anna, who's Jessica Chastain's
character, is like you and your American Dream.
Like, they even cite it, which is kind of goofy.
But in Scarface, he's mowing people down.
He's like a truly horrible humanbeing, but entertaining

(57:31):
nonetheless. Sorry, I'm also just watching
your laptop and this seems to bea video from the 20th
anniversary of Scarface or something like that.
And it's Al Pacino right in between when he got old and when
he was still like Al Pacino, he.Looks crazy.
Yes, I thought the rock was there at the Recarpa premiere.
It seems like Maria Abraham. Yeah, he's in it.
Yeah. Have you seen?
Scarface. I've not seen Scarface.

(57:52):
Oh my God, it's. A very odd video to watch right
now. Yeah, I look sad at this.
We'll look at the show notes. Another one I thought of was
Billy Freakins The French Connection.
Never seen either. Which is 1971 but.
Love freakin. Which is like a great, you know,
really emphasizes grimy New York.

(58:13):
I was also reminded of it duringthat chase scene between the car
and the truck. And French Connection has one of
the best, probably the best car chases through New York,
famously. It's not in France.
Not in France. There's like this awesome chase.
And famously they had no permits.
They just strapped the cameras. In French Connection, they

(58:34):
strapped the cameras to the carsand literally cruised around New
York extremely irresponsibly. But the shots are incredible.
Yeah, I actually feel lied to you now.
That's not set in France. I really felt like I what had
this expectation in my head thatit was going to be a French
movie. So you weren't going to watch it
because French movies are mine? It's called the New York
Connection. And then finally, like I said, I

(58:58):
think this movie is riffing the most on Sidney Lumet films.
So I've actually, there's actually a movie from 1981 that
I watched which was really good called Prince of the City, Kind
of follows a similar guy who's morally trying to do the right
thing, but he's in the corrupt Police Department of New York

(59:19):
City. So it's in this exact time that
the movie takes place, has similar themes and it's really
an entertaining watch. It is almost 3 hours now.
I'll add them to my watch list. I actually have not seen all
three of the movies that you recommended.
So that's that's good for me. Yeah, check them out.
I'll learn. So Sam, this shelf form of a

(59:41):
movie, but it's sitting here for11 years.
Are you glad that you that you decided to take it off the
shelf? Would you rather sat there
getting colder and colder and colder and collecting dust?
I'm extremely glad that we took this off the shelf.
I'm actually gonna take it off the bottom shelf of 2014, 2015

(01:00:03):
air films and I'm gonna put it towards the top cuz I think this
is a hidden gem. What about you?
I organize my movies in alphabetical order cuz I said I
worked at a library so. That would fuck everything.
That would fuck everything up however.
However, I'm glad I picked it up.
Popped in the Xbox, watched it cuz it still plays.
Bruh, right. And I'm quite happy with it.

(01:00:25):
It's it's one I vividly rememberhearing about when I was like 13
years old, people being like, you should see this movie.
I'm like, I'm 13, I can't see this movie.
And so it's been like in my mindfor 12 years as a movie that
pretty good nobody saw. And it's been collecting dust
for a long time. Been getting very, very cold.
But just before, Just for the warmth slipped away, I grabbed
it off the shelf. And I'm happy I did.

(01:00:47):
I am too. Well, this has been our podcast
and discussion on A Most ViolentYear.
Thank you for listening. Thank you.
Bye. Thank you for listening to Shelf
Warmers. New episodes drop every
Wednesday. You can follow us on social
media at Shelf Warmers dot Podcast where you can send us

(01:01:09):
movies to take off the shelf forfuture episodes.