Review of Lawless (2012) by Mitchell Z — 06 Nov 2014

Great performances and great accuracy to what the Prohibition era was like makes Lawless a powerful and engaging film to watch. The story revolves around the Bondurant brothers Jack, Forrest, and Howard(LaBeouf, Hardy, and Clarke), who sell there moonshine as bootleggers during this era.

LaBeouf has a reputation for being an asshole yes, but man can he act, he plays Jack as a reserved type and his character eventually gets pushed to a limit and he pulls it off nicely. Hardy is great as usual, one of the best actors of this time, and his part is the tough and intimidating type who can't be brought down no matter what.

And the up and coming Jason Clarke is good as well. But the supporting cast is just as grand, with Jessica Chastain as a beautiful woman with a dark past, Gary Oldman as a feared mobster, Guy Pearce is fantastic as the hateful villain of the film, a deputy named Charlie Rakes, and even young up and comer Dane DeHaan is pleasant in a small role.

Though there are minor flaws in the film, Lawless is an entertaining watch and a well shot film.