Review of Lawless (2012) by Vincent S — 13 Dec 2014

The Prohibition Era in American history is often most famously explored in cities in movies; this time it moves from the city to the Virginia countryside to tell the true story of the Bondurant brothers, who were infamous bootleggers in their time. Shia LaBeouf, Tom Hardy, and Jason Clarke star as the brothers, and they're all good, although LaBeouf and Hardy get more of the focus than Clarke. Mia Wasikowska and Jessica Chastain are also good as LaBeouf and Hardy's love interests respectively, and Guy Pearce, in what I felt was a performance that should have gotten an Oscar nomination, was fantastic as the over-the-top corrupt sheriff who vows to bring the brothers down at any cost. Gary Oldman also shows up here, but he was woefully underused.

This isn't necessarily a groundbreaking look at Prohibition, but it certainly has its share of romance, shootouts, and villainy that you need for a movie like this. 8/10.