LAWLESS

‘Lawless’ is the latest collaboration between Australian director John Hillcoat and songwriter/scribe Nick Cave, and while it lacks the visceral virtuosity of ‘The Proposition’ or the relentless visual horror of Hillcoat’s previous film, ‘The Road’, it nonetheless retains hallmarks of both men: moments of brutal, bloody violence; an examination of inarticulate masculinity; and a fascination with the power and creation of myth. Like his outback-set Western, Hillcoat finds moments of identification in the hot summers and parched fields of Virginia, helped in no small part by the number of Australian faces (Guy Pearce, Jason Clarke, Noah Taylor, and Mia Wasikowska among them) that pop up at frequent intervals.

Visually, the film is flat and indistinct, with muted colours that give it a televisual appearance. Oftentimes, the frank framing and workmanlike camera movements make the film feel like a condensed, rural-themed episode of ‘Boardwalk Empire’, and while the costumes and cars are lovingly rendered in perfect period detail, the approach feels cinematically underwhelming. Nick Cave’s script, too, feels pared back and thin, lacking the dark poetry and style of ‘The Proposition’. Based on a mostly non-fiction book by Matt Bondurant (grandson of Jack Bondurant), Cave struggles to find a tone and narrative drive for the material, and its shortcomings are best chalked up to his inexperience with adaptation. This lack of snap and crackle also bolsters the made-for-TV vibe.

While the vision of both director and writer may be unexpectedly subdued, it does leave space for some surprisingly bold performances. Shia LaBeouf, usually known as ‘Transformers’ cannon fodder, is surprisingly competent as Jack Bondurant, the more reluctant of the bootlegging brothers. His transformation from boy to man is energetic and engaging. Tom Hardy gets to act with his whole face this time around, and while no less verbally challenged than Bane, uses his lack of perspicacity to charming effect. Guy Pearce ramps up the eccentric camp as a sadistic corrupt lawman, while Gary Oldman gets to return to his nefarious ways in an extended cameo as real-life gangster, Floyd Banner. Meanwhile, Jessica Chastain and Mia Wasikowska are luminous in the truest Hollywood sense, both impeccably dressed and tailored in sumptuous period detail.

While proving a dramatic departure in style and tone for both writer and director, ‘Lawless’ succeeds in fostering strong performances from an eclectic ensemble cast, and punctuating its unconventional true-crime story with moments of genuine reflection and sudden violence. More so than in previous films, Hillcoat and Cave find the fun in their subjects, and together add an entertaining, if minor, entry to the cinema canon of the Great American Gangster flick.