‘Lawless’ Review

Who doesn’t love a good period film? I know I sure do. Lawless is a good period film set in the times of the United States prohibition era. The film, based on the 2008 novel The Wettest County in the World, is about the three Bondurant brothers selling moonshine in Franklin County, Virginia. The brothers Forrest, Howard, and Jack are played by Tom Hardy, Jason Clarke, and Shia LaBeouf respectively.  Their business is running itself very well. Nobody challenges the brothers due to the rumor that they are immortal. Things start changing for their business when the new Special Detective Charlie Rakes, played by Guy Pearce, comes into town and warns the bootleggers that they all must kick in with his boss or there will be trouble. The film played very well with each actors delivering very different and intriguing performances. Hardy and Clarke play the elder Bondurant brothers as strong introverts while LaBeouf plays the youngest as a  weak extrovert. Throughout the movie you see Forrest and Howard whoopin’ ass and Jack getting his ass whooped. You watch the movie waiting for jack to man up and become like his brothers, but in the end, it never really happens. Still, the story is really good and watching Jack try to be like his brothers is interesting to follow. This film also does a great job in establishing its setting. From the time period to the season this film looked great. It felt as if I were looking through a time portal as everything from the vehicles to the speech was on point with the 1930s. This was a great movie that I would definitely recommend for people to watch. It was a great ride to watch with good acting throughout. The story was pretty good and the characters, especially Forrest, were fun to watch. I do recommend that the audience listen hard because some of the characters accents are a little heavy.  This is a type of movie that I see popping back up during awards season next year. After watching this film I had to look up the Bondurant brothers to find out how much of this film was true. It’s always good to  watch a movie that you are still interested in after you leave the theater. I give Lawless a Decent 8.5/10.

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