Lawless Preview

With both The Proposition and The Road, John Hillcoat has made quite a name for himself making brutal, bleak and masculine dramas. Based on the novel ‘The Wettest County In The World’, Lawless once again very much fits this description and features a stellar cast, including Tom Hardy, Guy Pearce, Gary Oldman, Jessica Chastain and Shia LaBeouf.

The film tells the tale of the notorious bootlegging Bondurant family, who during prohibition era America make their living producing Moonshine for the residents of Franklin County, Virginia. Their comfortable existence is threatened when a corrupt county attorney mayor decides he wants a slice of the pie. Naturally this doesn’t go down too well and before long a vicious, sadistic FBI agent Charlie Rakes (Pearce) is sent in to get the brothers to play along. Tensions rise further when the ambitious younger Bondurant (LaBeouf) ramps up the moonshine production and run-ins with Rakes get more fractious and violent.

A sense of menace and tension is present throughout and as you’d expect, the violence is brutal and unflinching. Although the story lacks any real surprises it chunters towards its immensely satisfying conclusion with brio. Hardy is the pick of a great cast and the sense of time and place is expertly realised by Hillcoat and his team.

Lawless is released on September 7^th.

[embed width=550]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=csLbNO5cYSM[/embed]