Review of Live by Night (2016) by Dawdlingpoet — 27 Nov 2021

First off, those accents! Ben Affleck is in full blown low, whispery and (I assume) Italian/Irish gangster accent mode here, among numerous others. It felt a bit over the top. However, I liked the period setting, the old building frontages and so on. The special effects (explosions etc.) are alright - its certainly watchable if you can get past the cheesy accents(!) but there are definitely some cliches present (I wasn't keen on the female characters). Still, its not un-entertaining regardless. This film is alright - not one I'd recommend you go out of your way i.e. pay much to see but its an ok watch, not a complete failure but its not especially great either. There are some good bits of dialogue and it paints the scene of criminality in America at the time of the prohibition era relatively well, so it could be worse. Its certainly true that there's more dialogue driven scenes than fast paced action scenes - whether that would bother you depends on your own taste in films I suppose.

I suppose I'm sort of sitting on the fence - I dont think it deserves the really low ratings some people give it but I wouldn't give it a very high rating either, somewhere in the middle (Make of that what you will). I don't like to feel totally put off watching a film that initially appeals to me, due to negative reviews - I bought it after seeing it on sale for £1 and it appealed to me - I wasnt familiar with it so I bought it and I certainly wouldn't say it wasn't worth that low price. I certainly thought it was interesting to see it in terms of it being directed by Ben Affleck as well, although I wouldn't say this is his best directorial effort, its ok. I wouldn't write him off as a director entirely, even though this isn't as good as it perhaps good have been - its a decent attempt at a good film but it is slightly lacking, although it does have a nice sense of atmosphere.