Live By Night

Patriots Day,' 'silence,' 'live By Night

... the bomber. The verdict: See it. This director-star duo always offers affecting depictions of real life. "Silence" — Andrew Garfield, Liam Neeson, Adam Driver, directed by Martin Scorsese. Martin Scorsese's long-awaited passion project "Silence" finally hits wide release this weekend, and you can bet it will fill some theater seats. It's the story of two Jesuit priests who journey to Japan to find and rescue their mentor (Neeson), though clashing ideologies will be just one of the dangerous hurdles they face. When Scorsese explores the nature of faith, his efforts always produce memorable cinema ("The Last Temptation of Christ" and "Kundun"), and this will certainly be on the Oscar shortlist come February. The verdict: See it. It may prove a tough, gritty watch, but here's a chance to bear witness to filmmaking at its sharpest. "Live By Night" — Ben Affleck, Sienna Miller, Zoe Saldana, directed by Ben ...

Nice Guy Chris Messina Is Thankful Ben Affleck Saw His Inner Gangster For 'live By Night

... Lehane’s Prohibition-era bestselling novel “Live by Night” should help put distance between him and Danny Castellano, the lovably prickly OB-GYN he played on “The Mindy Project.”  In “Live by Night,” which stars Ben Affleck (who also directs), Messina is Dion Bartolo, the swaggering hatchet man to Affleck’s rum runner. How did Messina manage to locate the unconcealed glee that Dion brings to wasting his enemies and living a restraint-free life? “I’ve been around long enough to know that they don’t make movies like this anymore — and when they do, they don’t cast me —  so I had such a joy in being there,” says Messina, 42, who as a New York stage actor played all manner of men but in film and TV found himself locked into a nice-guy niche. “Ben saw something else in me — and I was so thankful for him to break that weird curse.”. Talk about the genesis of Dion's look. I knew [Ben] didn’t want me to be coming off “The Mindy Project” to be the handsome doctor guy. In the book, Dion has a lust for life, smoking cigars, driving fast cars; he loves being a gangster. So I said to myself, “I’ll put on a little weight and see what that does.” I ate pasta, cookies, ice cream. ...

Live By Night, Patriots Day

... Lehane's sprawling crime novel centering on the prodigal son of a prominent police chief, and his gradual descent into the criminal underworld. Patriots Day (Drama, Suspense/Thriller, R, Starring Mark Wahlberg, John Goodman, Kevin Bacon, J. K. Simmons, Michelle Monaghan) - In the aftermath of an unspeakable act of terror, Sergeant Tommy Saunders joins survivors, first responders and investigators in a race against the clock to hunt down the bombers before they strike again. Weaving together the stories of Special Agent Richard Deslauriers, Police Commissioner Ed Davis, Sergeant Jeffrey Pugliese and nurse Carol Saunders, this visceral and unflinching chronicle captures the suspense of the most sophisticated manhunt in law enforcement history and the strength of the people of Boston that inspired the world. Monster Trucks (Action/Adventure, Animation, PG, Starring Lucas Till, Jane ...

With Live By Night, Ben Affleck Makes An Un-thrilling Period Crime Thriller

... Joe becomes the unofficial mayor of Tampa. The only question is whether his undoing will come by way of his criminal activities, his gangland rivals, the perorations of a newly minted evangelical preacher (Elle Fanning), her sheriff father (Chris Cooper) or an emboldened Ku Klux Klan. Shot in rich amber tones by Robert Richardson, “Live by Night” looks terrific, and Affleck is as proficient as ever with crime-driven action, including shootouts, old-timey car chases and some spirited nightclub scenes. If, as his own leading man, he doesn’t bring much zing to the role of Joe, he fills out the suit with convincing, square-shouldered heft. And he’s cast the rest of the movie well: Cooper and Fanning are both excellent in their supporting roles. But Zoe Saldana, as a slinky Florida local, is little more than set dressing in a story that can’t help but invoke memories of “Miller’s Crossing” and “The Godfather Part II,” with touches of “Boardwalk Empire” thrown in for good measure. The visual and performative elements are polished ...

City Of Lawrence Stars In 'live By Night

... us at the mill during the day of filming in our yard. They walked around the mill floor in their costumes from the 1920 s, getting hair and makeup in office spaces that were available at the time, and then strolling in the yard after they got off from work during the filming.”. Susan Grabski of the Lawrence History Center had a bird’s-eye view of the action that day and took some impressive photographs from the Everett Mill, looking down on a crowd and set that included Ben Affleck and vintage cars. Jose Martinez, 48, a lifelong Lawrence resident, has souvenir blank shells that he collected from a gunfight scene shot outside his Canal Street Gym. Martinez was hosting 30 school kids from Wetherbee School that day, giving them boxing lessons. During a break, the kids crowded the windows, knocking on the ...

Zoe Saldana Talks Self-doubt, Kids And Nyc

... explaining she almost turned the role down. “Then I realized that it was because I didn’t have enough belief in myself.”. She blames the universe for the spate of self-doubt — literally. “I’d been in the last ten years playing primarily characters that are set in the future and that live outside of Earth,” she says. “For ten years I’ve been adjusting my physicality more than my mind, I guess, into a character. I stopped kind of challenging myself.”. Her co-star and director, Affleck, also gave her the boost she needed. “Ben was so encouraging and so empowering. He was like, ‘You have to do this. You have to believe in yourself.’”. During our chat, Saldana also opened up about her family — excitedly relaying life with her identical twin sons Cy and Bowie, who recently turned 2 and often star on her Instagram page. “Oh my god, I’m having so much fun planning birthdays for little kids,” she says. “It’s so much fun. It’s better than planning birthdays for adults.” The latest was clown themed, as a nod to the Fellini movies Italian-born Perego has been showing the ...

Miguel Talks New Film & Plans To Record Spanish-language Album In 2017

... sister in the film. Did that sibling bond transfer offscreen as well. Zoe is such an amazing and warm woman. She's just real. When we first met, she said she discovered my music from a couple of albums ago, and after that it was over.  It was like all right, I love you. I already love you, but I love you even more. She was really reassuring as well because this was my first job as an actor. She was very helpful and she was really supportive. I love her for that. She was incredible. We are huge fans of her, too! It's great to hear that people you admire are great people behind the scenes. "Live by Night" definitely has a shot at awards season next year, especially with all that star power. It's set in the '20 s and has a real gangster, speakeasy feel. As your style usually translates into your music, will we hear some of that prohibition-era influence in your music. I think that the 1920 s was an amazing time, especially when it comes to big band. And Cuban ...

Live By Night,' 'sleepless' And More

... moral and ethical extremes. Young bank robber Joe finds himself mixed up with the Irish and Italian mobs of Boston before he ultimately takes over the rumrunning trade in Tampa on behalf of the Italian mob boss. Joe's hellbent on enacting revenge on Irish boss Albert White (Robert Glenister), a former romantic rival, whom he blames for the death of their shared lady love, Irish immigrant flapper Emma (Sienna Miller). That vengeful fire is what drives him to seek more and more power in Tampa, partnering with a pair of Cuban siblings, one of whom he falls in love with (Zoe Saldana), driving out the Klan, and attempting to secure a hold on the gambling industry while wrestling with a cultural tide of religious conservatism. As a screenwriter, Affleck takes his source material from Dennis Lehane's 2012 crime novel, and in the adaptation, it seems he's bitten off more than he can chew. Instead of narrowing the focus, Affleck's tries to stuff more and more in — more plot twists, more characters, more shoot-outs. There are fascinating elements of the story, including the racial tension and a ...

Ben Affleck's Mob Drama Is Nearly Kiss Of Death

... Gleeson as Thomas Coughlin, the Boston police captain and Joe’s sorrowing father. But there is something narcissistic and tiresome about the forgiving gaze that Affleck turns on himself as Joe, whose nice-guy credentials are always unchallenged, and who is surrounded by simperingly adoring womenfolk. Female stars Elle Fanning and Zoe Saldana are wasted in thankless, sacrificial roles whose purpose is to emphasise Joe’s lantern-jawed sensitivity and gallantry even in the midst of gangsterdom. Sacrificial … Zoe Saldana as Graciella Suarez. Photograph: Allstar/Warner Bros. Joe is embittered by his time in the ranks serving overseas in the first world war, disgusted by the senseless slaughter and officer-class callousness. Once back in prohibition-era Boston, he becomes a robber and a stickup man, a freebooting outlaw who sleeps by day and lives by night, with no gang allegiances, and has a passionate affair with Emma Gould (Sienna Miller), the mistress of Irish mob boss Albert White (Robert Glenister). But when a bank ...

Live By Night

... rum business very successfully. Emma is out of the picture, as she was forced to throw Joe under the bus. That lead him to a long hospital stay for him, and an even longer stay in the clink. It’s easy enough to forget about her when you’re working with Cuban club proprietor Graciella Suarez (Zoe Saldana). They quickly fall in love, but that brings some troubles from the KKK. A lot of the supporting work in this movie is fun. Joe’s buddy Dion Bartolo is played by Chris Messina, and he has some good lines. There’s the always reliable Chris Cooper as a crooked cop. Yet his story gets a bit ridiculous when he can’t seem to reign in his crazy, racist brother-in-law. His daughter Loretta Figgis (Elle Fanning), wants to try and make it in Hollywood. This leads to something that enables Joe to blackmail him, and at about that point, things really go off the rails. The first part of the movie has some fun car chases and fight scenes, and although things slow down when the story moves to Florida — it’s still got some interesting things going on. There’s stuff in this movie that sometimes works. The first few scenes with ...

Stylish ‘live By Night’ Never Quite Comes Together

... as the patriotic son of a Boston police official (Brendan Gleeson in a throwaway role) and returned an outlaw. “I don’t know much about honest work,” he admits to floozy Emma Gould (Sienna Miller), whose sugar daddy is the sort of mob kingpin you don’t want to annoy. MOVIE TRAILER: Live By Night. After a series of broad daylight walk-by hits and bank jobs with highly flammable Model T getaway vehicles, Joe’s options in New England gangster circles run dry. A better future seems to await him in the Sunshine State, making and marketing Prohibition rum with ingredients smuggled from Havana and building a vast gaming casino. He has less opposition from the live-and-let-live sheriff (Chris Cooper) than the Ku Klux Klan, who throw pipe bombs into Joe’s favorite interracial nightspots. ‘LIVE BY NIGHT’. Written and directed by Ben Affleck. Screenplay adapted from the novel by Dennis Lehane. A Warner Bros. release playing at Franklin Park, Fallen Timbers, Levis Commons, Bowling Green, and Mall of Monroe. Rated R for strong violence, language throughout, and some ...