As a director, Ben Affleck has had one of the most impeccable track records in recent movie history with Gone Baby Gone, The Town, and the Oscar-winning Argo. So, does Live By Night continue the streak? Not quite.
Affleck stars as Joe Coughlin, a bank robber from 1930s Boston who gets arrested and sentenced to prison after a botched robbery. He’s betrayed by his mob boss and his girlfriend in the process and after serving his sentence, he journeys down to Tampa in order to work for his boss’ rival. Affleck filmed the majority of these sequences here in Coastal Georgia and our home state hasn’t looked this good on film for quite some time.
While working for his new boss, Coughlin falls in love with a new woman (Zoe Saldana). He quickly rises in the field of alcohol and gambling all the while forming a clandestine relationship with the local sheriff (Chris Cooper).
Affleck still has great skill and ability as a director, but I do wish he had found stronger material. Instead of adding anything new or exciting to the genre, it decides to follow a more conventional route. The opening sequences are its best moments including an intense car chase sequence that is genuinely thrilling and when most of the violence happens, it’s brutal, realistic, and beautifully staged.
I still have faith in Affleck as a director and I just hope he’s able to find better films to suit his vision. If only the story were on the same level as his ambitions, we would’ve had a masterpiece. As it is, it settles for good but not great.
Grade: B
(Rated R for strong violence, language throughout and some sexuality/nudity.)
