Instead of directing a movie that screams "HEY, IT'S THE '80S," he made one that looks, sounds, and feels like a refugee from that era, and lets the audience do the rest.

A Most Violent Year's final scenes are its worst: they reveal that the plot's sure-footed plodding hasn't led anywhere unexpected, narratively or thematically.

A Most Violent Year resonates as the rare film to not simply take its superficial cues from The Godfather, but to truly understand its underlying ideas -- and, more impressive still, to re-work them into something thrillingly unique.

There is something to be said about sitting back and watching good actors work.