Lawless – They forgot the F

Lawless was, for me, the most anticipated film of the year. I couldn’t fathom how it could not be film of the year - it was directed by John Hillcoat, written by Nick Cave, shot by Benoit Delhomme, scored by Nick Cave and long-time bad seed and grinderman, Warren Ellis and just look at that cast… What a compelling list. But the higher something climbs the harder it falls or, in fact, the easier it is to fall. To make it very clear, Lawless doesn’t fall. It is a towering achievement in cinema in the exact same way that Hillcoat’s The Proposition(2005) was.

Shia LaBeouf, the breakthrough star, and Mia Wasikowska

The film tells the tale of the Bondurant brothers and their lawless meddling in the distribution of moonshine during prohibition era Franklin. The two oldest brothers, the bullfrog Forrest and the looser cannon Howard, are revered as legends. The men of the Bondurant are said to be immortal and when we see Forrest clutching closed his slit open throat, we’re inclined to believe the legend. The youngest brother Jack, in an excellent turn by Shia LaBeouf, is the runt of the litter; he just drives the car and hangs out with his cripple pal Cricket. The narrative takes off when Special Deputy Charley Rakes comes to town and upsets the balance of the brothers and of the landscape of the townsfolk permanently. Much attention will be drawn to Guy Pearce’s portrayal of Rakes and quite rightly, it is a wonderful piece of characterisation. In the year of Matthew McConaughey’s Killer Joe Cooper who’d of thought we could get a more hideously charismatic and watchable villain but Guy Pearce has given us the most barnstorming performance of the year. However, with a performance as showy as that of Pearce’s it only works if the film around him is sound enough to not be out performed by one role and Lawless is strong on all fronts.

A Pearceing stare

Nick Cave’s script is impeccable - laced with violence, soul and a modest, dark but beautifully witty vein of humour (like all his music). The Proposition (Hillcoat and Cave’s last writer/director collaboration) owed a great debt to Cormac McCarthy’s Blood Meridian (for me, the greatest novel ever written) and Hillcoat has said as much. His last film The Road was based on the incredible, bleak McCarthy novel. Lawless though, along with Tommy Lee Jones’ The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada(2005), is the film that best captures McCarthy’s lyrical yet grounded dialogue and the ingrained poetry and base, impulsive violence of a certain time and place, whether that is the old west or the apocalypse. Hillcoat and Cave have captured just that in Lawless.  

The film is exhilarating in a way that only film can be. It’s exhilarating in the same way that no film has been since Nicolas Winding Refn’s Drive last year. It’s perfectly paced, all characters utterly relevant (Jessica Chastain has a lovely role as the woman that adds weight and humanity to the reserved Forrest) and builds to a Peckinpah worthy shootout. Lawless reminds me (as if I need reminding) why I love film as an entire medium. It’s also the best use and disregarding of genre tropes since The Proposition. John Hillcoat and Nick Cave have absolutely cemented themselves as one of the greatest cinematic collaborations of all time. Rubbing shoulders with the heady heights of Powell and Pressburger and have, in Lawless, crafted an immortal film of masterful impact.