LIVE BY NIGHT movie review

Live By Night is a novel adaptation of an award winning novel by Dennis Lehane. Live By Night takes us back during the Great Depression in U.S.  Even though the drugs are already illegal, this was also the time when liquor was also banned.

It was also a time for personalities like Joe Coughlin, played by Ben Affleck. During these times, criminals like Billy The Kid back in the Old West and notorious bank robbing couple Bonnie and Clyde are considered cult heroes during their time. Coughlin is only fictional and not on the same level as the famous bank robbers but he is considered an antihero long before there was no word to describe them.

Unlike any gangster movie, this is not just action-packed. It also has drama. Just like any American novel that spans years, it also involves history. It might also be a good TV series since it is an adaptation. But as a movie, it was done pretty well.

As a gangster drama, it was expected that the movie is male dominated but the women characters also shows a powerful role in the lives of the men. Sienna Miller, Zoe Saldana and Elle Fanning did well on their characters. Who would have thought that the late 1920’s to 30’s can be sexy and appealing?

 

Photo credits: Warner Bros.

Chris Messina also played a good role as Coughlin’s right hand man. The author Lehane describe this character as a heavy man so Messina added more weight to play the part. This is how detailed the movie is from the book.

Behind the camera, Ben Affleck has done well in this movie as expected. He is just as good in acting as well as directing. He already had an Oscar when he first started in Good Will Hunting. Back then, he is starting to make a name in the movie industry. I also hope that Live By Night will get noticed just like his previous works The Town and Argo.

In my opinion, the character Joe Coughlin shows similarities with local gangster Asiong Salonga. Both are considered antiheroes but they are considered honorable personalities. Both of them have big roles in their communities they belonged to. I believe Filipino audiences should watch this movie.

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BEN AFFLECK IN “LIVE BY NIGHT”

Press release

BEN AFFLECK, A GANGSTER WITH A CONSCIENCE IN “LIVE BY NIGHT”

Two-time Academy Award-winner Ben Affleck – most recently seen in the critically praised The Accountant and in early 2016 playing crime fighting icon Batman/Bruce Wayne in the global blockbuster Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice – now directs and stars in Warner Bros. Pictures' new gangster film Live by Night.

Photo credit: Warner Bros.

Affleck plays Joe Coughlin who went overseas to fight valiantly for his country, but quickly found himself utterly disillusioned by the war. He ultimately finds himself back home in, as he tells us, a life he didn’t expect…paying the price for the American dream.

“Joe fully acknowledges that he’s chosen to be an outlaw in a town run by gangsters, with the Irish and Italian mobs at war,” offers Affleck. “What I find most intriguing about him though is that, while he breaks the law and makes his own rules, it’s his own morality that prevents him from considering himself one of them, a gangster.”

But it’s Joe’s inherent sense of decency that could be his undoing.

For the ten years following the war, Joe Coughlin managed to live like an outlaw—under his policeman father’s roof, no less—before it all caught up to him. “The things that Joe witnessed as a soldier made him decide there wasn’t any meaning to the rules we follow in life, to playing it straight,” Affleck states. “He even sees the organized hierarchical nature of the gangster life as an equal anathema to the hierarchy of the military. He wants no part of that, no part of taking orders from anybody. He’s going to make his own rules.”

And he does so with a fair amount of success, so long as he keeps it, as Affleck describes, “small-time, running around with just two other guys and doing little stick-ups, that kind of thing.”

But it isn’t Joe’s distaste for authority, or even an ill-chosen robbery, that causes him to make his gravest error. It’s love. And it’s that singular emotion in its many forms—from passion to compassion—that will continue to be his downfall for years to come.

Live by Night was a true passion project for Affleck, who says, “As a filmmaker, this was a chance to pay homage to the classic Warner Bros. gangster movies of the 1930s through the `70s. I grew up watching them and they had an epic, sprawling feel that really took you into a different world, a different era.”

Affleck adapted the screenplay from author Dennis Lehane’s novel of the same name; the two first collaborated when Affleck made his acclaimed directorial debut with his screen adaptation of Lehane’s crime thriller Gone, Baby, Gone. Lehane served as an executive producer on Live by Night.

As a lifelong film buff, Affleck posits that the story has all the tropes that made him a fan of the gangster genre in particular: beautiful women, dangerous men, cops, the mob, shootouts, car chases…the whole fiery, combustible mix. “As soon as I read Dennis’s book I knew that there was something there for anyone who just really likes to have a great time at the movies.”

Opening across the Philippines on January 18, 2017, Live By Night is distributed worldwide by Warner Bros. Pictures, a Warner Bros. Entertainment Company.

ZOE SALDANA IN “LIVE BY NIGHT”

Press release

ZOE SALDANA CAPTURES THE HEART OF BEN AFFLECK IN “LIVE BY NIGHT”

Known to global audiences as Gamora and Uhura in the Guardians of the Galaxy and Star Trek franchises, respectively, Zoe Saldana now portrays the exotic Graciela in Warner Bros. Pictures' new gangster film Live by Night.

Photo credit: Warner Bros.

Directed by Ben Affleck, Live by Night tells the story of Joe Coughlin (Affleck), a WWI vet who’s a self-proclaimed anti-establishment outlaw, despite being the son of the Boston Police Deputy Superintendent. Joe’s not all bad, though; in fact, he’s not really bad enough for the life he’s chosen. Unlike the gangsters he refuses to work for, he has a sense of justice and an open heart, and both work against him, leaving him vulnerable time and again—in business and in love.

Joe signs on with the Italian mob and is dispatched to Tampa, Florida where he almost immediately encounters Graciela. He is instantly intrigued, even more so when he learns that she and her brother control something integral to the success of the rum business: molasses.

Saldana's Graciela is a Cuban living in Ybor, a multi-ethnic, multi-racial community of hardworking immigrants, known for the production of cigars. “Joe’s been working with barbaric, violent criminals his whole life, so there’s an integrity to the people, Graciela’s people, that Joe finds appealing,” she suggests. “And Graciela is unlike other women he’s known. She’s educated, she’s traveled and studied music and art. She’s very cultured and also very smart when it comes to her family’s business.”

Perhaps what sets Graciela apart from the women in Joe's past is what she really wants out of life. “I don’t think Graciela woke up in Cuba and said to herself, ‘I want to date gangsters, I want to live on the dark side,’” Saldana adds. “I think she wants a full life with a good man, a home, children. The more time she spends with Joe, the more she realizes that she could have all that with this man. She sees who he really is, who he could be, if he could wash away all the bad that he does at night by doing good during the day. She sees his redemption.”

Affleck states, “Zoe was amazing. She was able to convey all the strength and confidence and elusiveness of the character that draw Joe in, but it’s Graciela’s expectations of him that give him something to strive for, which Zoe played so quietly yet powerfully.”

Producer Jennifer Todd concurs, “We were lucky to get Zoe because she has all these beautiful qualities, a lightness and grace, that suit Graciela so well, and she already speaks Spanish, but she applied an exquisite Cuban accent to her dialogue.”

Opening across the Philippines on January 18, 2017, Live By Night is distributed worldwide by Warner Bros. Pictures, a Warner Bros. Entertainment Company.

AWARD-WINNING NOVEL “LIVE BY NIGHT” COMES TO LIFE IN THE BIG SCREEN

Press release

Based on Dennis Lehane’s bestselling novel, Warner Bros. Pictures’ Live by Night was a true passion project for Ben Affleck, who says, “As a filmmaker, this was a chance to pay homage to the classic Warner Bros. gangster movies of the 1930s through the `70s.  I grew up watching them and they had an epic, sprawling feel that really took you into a different world, a different era.”

 

Photo credit: Warner Bros.

Affleck adapted the screenplay from Lehane’s novel of the same name; the two first collaborated when Affleck made his acclaimed directorial debut with his screen adaptation of Lehane’s crime thriller Gone, Baby, Gone.  Lehane served as an executive producer on Live by Night.

“Creatively speaking, Ben and I are a unique fit—and it’s not just the Boston thing, though the Boston thing is big,” Lehane smiles.  “There’s something special about Ben’s aesthetic.  His first time in the director’s chair was with ‘Gone Baby Gone,’ and he did such a beautiful job, I love that film.  So when I heard he was going to adapt Live by Night, I was happy to be working with him again.  And like before, watching this book transmogrify in Ben’s hands, from the screenplay on, was a special thing.”

As a lifelong film buff, Affleck posits that the story has all the tropes that made him a fan of the gangster genre in particular: beautiful women, dangerous men, cops, the mob, shootouts, car chases…the whole fiery, combustible mix.  “As soon as I read Dennis’s book I knew that there was something there for anyone who just really likes to have a great time at the movies.”

Leonardo DiCaprio’s production banner, Appian Way, held the rights to the book, which Affleck read at the suggestion of DiCaprio’s producing partner, Jennifer Davisson.  “Our company is constantly looking for stories about great men—which doesn’t necessarily mean good men, just that they have greatness in them in one way or another—and what they sacrifice for that,” she explains.  “One of the things Dennis does so well is dissect the male ego in a really complex and interesting way, and that’s something I think Ben does equally well.  We had the property, but when Ben was reading the book, it was clear how much he liked it and that it was right for him.  When we read Ben’s beautiful script, the same Lehane sensibility jumped off the page.”

Producer Jennifer Todd agrees.  “Ben is attracted to Dennis’s stories, and this one in particular really excited him: the time period, the characters, going from Boston to Florida.  It all felt like nothing else we had looked at.  Add to that the central character Joe, who is not quite a bad guy and not quite a good guy but caught somewhere in between the two, so he makes his choices, but he feels the consequences.  Where does he really belong?”

Live by Night tells the story of Joe Coughlin (Affleck), a WWI vet who’s a self-proclaimed anti-establishment outlaw, despite being the son of the Boston Police Deputy Superintendent. Joe’s not all bad, though; in fact, he’s not really bad enough for the life he’s chosen. Unlike the gangsters he refuses to work for, he has a sense of justice and an open heart, and both work against him, leaving him vulnerable time and again—in business and in love. Driven by a need to right the wrongs committed against him and those close to him, Joe heads down a risky path that goes against his upbringing and his own moral code. Leaving the cold Boston winter behind, he and his reckless crew turn up the heat in Tampa. And while revenge may taste sweeter than the molasses that infuses every drop of illegal rum he runs, Joe will learn that it comes at a price.

           

Starring with Affleck are Elle Fanning, Brendan Gleeson, Chris Messina, Sienna Miller, Zoe Saldana, and Oscar winner Chris Cooper.

Opening across the Philippines on January 18, 2017, “Live By Night” is distributed worldwide by Warner Bros. Pictures, a Warner Bros. Entertainment Company.

“LIVE BY NIGHT” MAIN POSTER CONFIRMS AFFLECK'S ANTIHERO ROLE

Press release

Warner Bros. Pictures has just revealed the payoff poster of the crime thriller Live by Night showing a gun-pointing Ben Affleck, all-suited up as a mobster. The tagline confirms that his character is an antihero: “Joe Was Once a Good Man.”

Check out the poster below and watch Live by Night (read my full review here) when it opens in Philippine cinemas on January 18, 2017.

Aside from directing and acting on the film, Affleck wrote the screenplay, based on the award-winning best-seller by Dennis Lehane; it marks the second collaboration for the fellow Boston natives, following the acclaimed drama “Gone Baby Gone.”

What you put out into this world will always come back to you, but it never comes back how you predict. Taking fatherly advice is not in Joe Coughlin’s nature. Instead, the WWI vet is a self-proclaimed anti-establishment outlaw, despite being the son of the Boston Police Deputy Superintendent. Joe’s not all bad, though; in fact, he’s not really bad enough for the life he’s chosen. Unlike the gangsters he refuses to work for, he has a sense of justice and an open heart, and both work against him, leaving him vulnerable time and again—in business and in love. Driven by a need to right the wrongs committed against him and those close to him, Joe heads down a risky path that goes against his upbringing and his own moral code. Leaving the cold Boston winter behind, he and his reckless crew turn up the heat in Tampa. And while revenge may taste sweeter than the molasses that infuses every drop of illegal rum he runs, Joe will learn that it comes at a price.

Starring with Affleck are Elle Fanning (“Maleficent”), Brendan Gleeson (the “Harry Potter” films), Chris Messina (“Argo”), Sienna Miller (“American Sniper”), Zoe Saldana (“Guardians of the Galaxy,” “Avatar”), and Oscar winner Chris Cooper (“The Town”).

“Live By Night” is distributed worldwide by Warner Bros. Pictures, a Warner Bros. Entertainment Company.

FIRST TRAILER OF BEN AFFLECK'S “LIVE BY NIGHT” ARRIVES ONLINE

Press Release

Warner Bros. Pictures has just revealed the first trailer of Ben Affleck's latest directorial effort, the dramatic crime thriller “Live by Night.”

Affleck also stars in the film and wrote the screenplay, based on the award-winning best-seller by Dennis Lehane; it marks the second collaboration for the fellow Boston natives, following the acclaimed drama “Gone Baby Gone.”

“Live by Night” is set in the roaring `20s when Prohibition hasn’t stopped the flow of booze in an underground network of gangster-run speakeasies. The opportunity to gain power and money is there for any man with enough ambition and nerve and Joe Coughlin (Affleck), the son of the Boston Police Superintendent, long ago turned his back on his strict upbringing for the spoils of being an outlaw. But even among criminals there are rules and Joe breaks a big one: crossing a powerful mob boss by stealing his money and his moll. The fiery affair ends in tragedy, setting Joe on a path of revenge, ambition, romance and betrayal that propels him out of Boston and up the ladder of Tampa’s steamy rum-running underworld.

“Live by Night” is produced by Leonardo DiCaprio (“The Wolf of Wall Street”) and Jennifer Davisson (“Orphan”), under the Appian Way banner; and Ben Affleck and Jennifer Todd (“Alice in Wonderland”) for Pearl Street Films. Chris Brigham, Dennis Lehane and Chay Carter are serving as executive producers.

Starring with Affleck are Elle Fanning (“Maleficent”), Brendan Gleeson (the “Harry Potter” films), Chris Messina (“Argo”), Sienna Miller (“American Sniper”), Zoe Saldana (“Guardians of the Galaxy,” “Avatar”), and Oscar winner Chris Cooper (“The Town”).

Behind the scenes, Affleck collaborated with three-time Oscar-winning director of photography Robert Richardson (“JFK,” “The Aviator,” “Hugo”), Oscar-nominated production designer Jess Gonchor (“True Grit”), Oscar-winning editor William Goldenberg (“Argo”), and Oscar-nominated costume designer Jacqueline West (“The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”). The score is composed by Harry Gregson-Williams (“The Martian,” “Gone Baby Gone”).

A Warner Bros. Pictures presentation, an Appian Way/Pearl Street production, “Live By Night” is slated for release in the Philippines in 2017, and will be distributed worldwide by Warner Bros. Pictures, a Warner Bros. Entertainment Company.