Watch Live by Night For Free

It is interesting even when nothing much happens, which is for most of its 3-hour running time. Read full review

Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

The first must-see film of the year.

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

In the end, I think is a good movie. The resolution is great at every level.But the truth is the first act is quite boring. A lot of characters are presented with (boring) care. After the work is done (and it feels like work, which is quite awful, probably), the movie starts to pick up in tensionThe third act is really great and makes the movie what it is.The performances are just fine in my opinion. Professional might be the right word. So... If you like Ben Afflect, you have to see this If you DISlike Ben Afflect, you better not see it If you are indiferent to him, I recommend it

Number four for the director Affleck after his other film won the Oscars four years ago. He has also written the screenplay and produced it. It was based on the book of the same name. The story of a World War I veteran turned notorious gangster. Escaping from the war, falling in love with a gangster's woman, a bank heist, prison time, the son of a police officer and his journey to the top of the criminal world after losing everything at one stage of his life. More like a revenge film, but the intention was not aggressive. Only the time and the life passage give one to him.From all his directional films, probably this could be the worst one. It had everything a gangster film needed like gun fights, car chase, revenge, romance, yet I felt lacked depth in its overall theme. Actors were not bad, the settings looked fine. The length of the film was a bit long, but the film offered nothing new. It looked like someone's biography or made it look like one. I think that's the point. Even the end part of the film extends, only to annoy us after two long hours patiently sat for it.The best part of the film, what I liked was the 1920s. The story about between two the World Wars, that too was about an internal affair like underworld activities looked nice on the screen. The cast and crew were best for the film, yet failed to impress us. Though it was not totally a bad film of the year, only it did not stand and deliver as it was promised. So, still it can be watched once if you prefer, but not guaranteed entertainment.6/10

Had very low expectations for this, but it was a lot better than I thought it would be. Definitely one of my favorite gangster films, up there with things like Layer Cake. I kept waiting for it to get bad, wear out its welcome, but it was soundly made. My favorite part was the car chase, well done, with 30's era cars. That was a nice change of pace.

In a theme that goes back at least to James Cagney in The Roaring 20s, Ben Affleck plays a disillusioned war veteran who having seen the promises of a just world and peace not coming to fruition has decided since he's learned the trade of killing decides to make use of it by becoming a criminal. It's hard for Affleck who produced, directed, and stars in Live By Night as he is the son of a police chief in Boston.He gets caught up in a turf war between rival gangsters Remo Girone and Robert Glenister after a narrow escape from death and a prison term goes to work for Girone who asks him to organize in Florida and he chooses Tampa as his base. Affleck has to deal with other gangsters, the Ku Klux Klan, and holy roller revivalists and in the end there's one big shootout with his crew and his former Boston associates.Three women have prominent roles here, Elle Fanning who was degraded in Hollywood and then becomes an Aimee Semple McPherson revivalist, Zoe Saldana daughter of a local Cuban rum importer who with Affleck breaks all kinds of racist taboos in Dixie Florida when she gets involved with him, and Sienna Miller who was originally involved with both Affleck and Glenister at the same time.The ambiance of both 20s Boston and 20s/30s Tampa is well done here. Affleck also gets good performances out of his entire ensemble and take note of Chris Cooper as a redneck sheriff and Fanning's father, Cooper's brother-in-law is Matthew Maher whose bigotry as both the local Klan Kleagle is frightening and repellent, Chris Messina as Affleck's right hand guy, and Max Casella as the mutt son of Girone who has it in for Affleck. What he lacks in brains he makes up for in bile.Director Affleck also got actor Affleck to give a great performance in the lead. Live By Night is an old fashioned gangster flick with some current themes.