The Bondurant brothers – Jack (Shia LaBeouf), Forrest (Tom Hardy) and Howard (Jason Clarke) – run a profitable moonshine operation in Franklin County. When newly appointed Special Deputy Charlie Rakes (Guy Pearce) barges in and demands a cut, the stubbornly proud Forrest, somehow convinced of his own immortality, refuses. Torture, rape and throat-slashing follow in the most gruesome fashion possible.

Often, one can predict the quality of a picture from the production studios that back it: in this case, The Weinstein Company and Annapurna Pictures, owned by the Weinstein brothers and Megan Ellison, respectively. The two Hollywood moguls and 25-year old billionaire heiress have come to the rescue of an ailing American movie industry suffering from laughably low standards: a consequence of its reluctance to take risks. Both have on many an occasion funded refreshingly original pictures by respected directors. 

 

Lawless is an apt example of their tasteful selection. LaBeouf dazzles in a performance that will likely alter critics’ impressions of him as a substandard blockbuster poster boy. Gone are the days of half-baked Michael Bay travesties; the young actor seems to have slunk into arthouse fare – up next is a leading role, Lars von Trier’s predictably controversial The Nymphomaniac. 

 

 

 

Pearce is virtually unrecognizable underneath a plethora of make up, transforming his face into the twisted cop we are led to hate. The film’s fatal flaw for many viewers may well be Nick Cave’s somewhat sentimental script which expects us to support the Bondurant brothers. However, crucially, this sentimentality does not lapse into mawkishness, thereby preserving the feature’s credibility.

 

The Weinsteins and Ellison deserve the $51m raked in at the box office: they are assets to filmmaking talent and the future of the industry. Go support them.

 

Stars - ★★★