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Reviews provided by RottenTomatoes
Wesley Morris, Grantland: The movie runs just over two hours, and Chandor keeps the movie almost antiseptically tight. He's proving to be a smart director whose skill is growing astronomically in three movies. Read more
Kyle Smith, New York Post: "A Most Violent Year" is a small picture, but each brushstroke is laden with detail and craftsmanship. Read more
Moira MacDonald, Seattle Times: Chandor, who previously wrote and directed "Margin Call" and "All Is Lost," is already a master storyteller, and "A Most Violent Year" unfolds with beautifully controlled tension. Read more
Mike D'Angelo, AV Club: Can Chandor make a first-rate film that isn't a testosterone fest? That's the next challenge-one that he shares with the industry as a whole. Read more
Bill Goodykoontz, Arizona Republic: Recognize J.C. Chandor as one of the most exciting writers and directors working today - after all of three films. Read more
Ty Burr, Boston Globe: "Year" is a fascinating movie but, despite its title, it's fairly flat - the pace rarely modulates. A work to admire, sometimes very much, but not an easy one to love. Read more
J. R. Jones, Chicago Reader: [Isaac's] coiled, charismatic performance strongly evokes Al Pacino as the young Michael Corleone, and Chandor's intelligent screenplay turns on a similar dilemma of how to maintain one's personal ethics in a cutthroat environment. Read more
Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune: Chandor has yet to learn the fine points of screw-turning when a story's momentum calls for it. But he knows a great deal about writing effective, striving, eagle-eyed characters caught in tricky situations. Read more
Peter Rainer, Christian Science Monitor: It's a gangster movie that tries to be more than that, not always successfully. Read more
Chris Vognar, Dallas Morning News: A lot of movies spin their wheels fast and create the illusion that important things are happening. A Most Violent Year, one of the best movies of 2014, does the opposite. Read more
Chris Nashawaty, Entertainment Weekly: It's the kind of uncompromising movie we don't see much of anymore. And it makes you nostalgic for a time when the world was worse and the movies were better. Read more
Todd McCarthy, Hollywood Reporter: [Chandor] peels back the layers of his story and characters with the skill of an expert dramatist. Read more
Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times: It brings to mind the fierce New York-based productions of Sidney Lumet in particular but also the whole notion of character-driven, the-clock-is-ticking melodramas in general. Read more
Randy Myers, San Jose Mercury News: The performances are memorable. Isaac uses understatement with the appropriate emotional outburst and Chastain is the film's firecracker. Read more
Rene Rodriguez, Miami Herald: Abel is a man with ideals in a world that has no use for them: If he's going to succeed, he's going to have to use his wits instead of bullets. Read more
Rafer Guzman, Newsday: "A Most Violent Year" sets the stage for a showdown between principles and base instincts that never satisfyingly arrives. Read more
David Denby, New Yorker: Some of the menacing atmosphere, and even a few scenes, descend from the first two "Godfather" movies. But, in fact, Chandor has done something startling: he has made an anti-"Godfather." Read more
Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger: It's well-acted, nicely crafted and imaginatively envisioned; it shows yet another side to an interesting and rapidly developing filmmaker. Read more
Andrew Lapin, NPR: The beats of the movie, not to mention the winking title and the time period, make A Most Violent Year feel like it should be another bloody tale about the dark side of American greed. But Chandor is too smart to go down that path. Read more
Joe Neumaier, New York Daily News: A movie that quietly but ferociously immerses us in a time and place, with atmosphere done in minimal yet evocative strokes. Read more
A.O. Scott, New York Times: "A Most Violent Year" presents an honorable man struggling to stay true to his values in the face of temptation. It is also the portrait of a brilliant hustler working a very long con. It's a terrific movie either way. Read more
Steven Rea, Philadelphia Inquirer: Gritty, suspenseful and almost poetic in its depiction of an unforgiving town, A Most Violent Year is just shy of being great. Read more
James Berardinelli, ReelViews: This isn't a revolutionary or thematically rich motion picture, but it's a well-told story featuring solid performances and a nice sense of atmosphere. Read more
Peter Travers, Rolling Stone: Chastain is killer good, and Isaac is an implosive powerhouse in a film that reflects a world where nothing is held sacred. You watch with nerves clenched, holding on tight. Read more
Andrew O'Hehir, Salon.com: All this is rendered ... in memorable and exemplary fashion. And it's all just a little more boring than it ought to be. Read more
Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle: "A Most Violent Year," for all its other virtues, is a wise movie about leadership. Read more
Dana Stevens, Slate: For me A Most Violent Year remained an abstract idea of a great period crime drama, rather than a fleshly incarnation of one. Read more
Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune: Chandor follows the psychologically penetrating tradition of Sidney Lumet, Alan Pakula and Francis Ford Coppola, observing crime as a microcosm of society. Read more
Jake Coyle, Associated Press: The performance by Isaac is commanding. His restrained businessman and aspiring immigrant clearly evokes Pacino's Michael Corleone, and it's a testament to Isaac that he can get even within a mile of that comparison. Read more
Calvin Wilson, St. Louis Post-Dispatch: "A Most Violent Year" is a far more interesting film than its title implies. And a film you've never seen before. Read more
Christopher Orr, The Atlantic: Oscar Isaac has been extremely good in previous roles, but he is an utter revelation as Abel, the quiet power of his performance recalling early Pacino. Read more
Liam Lacey, Globe and Mail: Like that camel-hair coat Abel wears, A Most Violent Year is classy and commands respect, but a stronger pulse under the lapels would make us care much more. Read more
Peter Howell, Toronto Star: [A] tight anti-thriller, one where the violence of the title is more implied than seen. Read more
Alonso Duralde, TheWrap: Just when we're settling into the film being a Lumet-ian character-driven drama, Chandor will, on more than one occasion, organically segue to an adrenaline-packed truck chase that's as exciting as any big action-movie moment of recent memory. Read more
Joshua Rothkopf, Time Out: Further clarifies what might be the most promising career in American movies: an urban-headed filmmaker attuned to economies of place and time, with an eye on the vacant throne of Sidney Lumet. Read more
Liz Braun, Toronto Sun: The underside of the American Dream is on display in A Most Violent Year, a drama about an immigrant trying to make his way to the top. Read more
Claudia Puig, USA Today: A revelation: meticulously constructed, brilliantly acted, suspenseful and sharply written. Read more
Stephanie Zacharek, Village Voice: It's really just sort of...dumb. Read more
David Edelstein, New York Magazine/Vulture: It holds you with its gravity and forces your respect. It's also talky, repetitive, thesis-driven, and often strangled by its own solemnity. Read more
Ann Hornaday, Washington Post: "A Most Violent Year" is an engrossing, often beautiful film, and a breakout opportunity for Isaac, whose similarly self-contained performance as a sadly self-aware folk singer in "Inside Llewyn Davis" was unfortunately overlooked last year. Read more
Joe Morgenstern, Wall Street Journal: Mr. Chandor gives Mr. Isaac everything he needs for a tour de force performance, and the actor makes the most of what he gets. Read more