Movie review of Lawless (2012)

Practice on short movie reviews:

I 'm a little behind on viewing  Hollywood's big time releases, but  I watched the movie Lawless on Showtime a few nights ago. Shia Lebeouf (Jack Bondurant) was the headliner, but Tom Hardy (Forrest Bondurant) stole this  slick movie about the bootlegging Bondurants in Franklin County, VA. in the 1930's.

The  relationship between   Forrest and  Bertha Minnix (Mia Wasikowska) was worth watching..  Mia makes all the sexual moves with Forrest, a usually decisive man. She allows his myth of invincibility to grow by  allowing folks to believe he walked  miles for medical help while  nearly dying from stab wounds. She tells him that she drove him to the doctor, and he begins to realize that she was likely attacked by the men who stabbed him.

Gary Oldman  gave another solid portrayal of a  slick bad guy (Floyd Banner) who plays all sides to his advantage, and  Dane Dehaan  was  a nice fit as  Cricket Pate, the crippled whiz kid chemist & mechanic.

 The Bondurant's ability to live through multiple beatdowns and shootings pressed the limits of Hollywood make believe, but I still found myself glued to the screen.

Some other tidbits : Nick Cave, a singer/songwriter who 's bounced around the fringes of the punk and proto punk scene, wrote the screenplay based on  Matt Bondurant novel, and was a part of the The Bootleggers, the soundtrack band . Perhaps only Cave  would do a punk/bluegrass cover  of White Light/White heat, a Velvet Underground tune about heroin , and make into a moonshine song .

I probably would've paid to see this flick.

08/11/13

  Laughed a little at Gary Oldman hamming it up on screen after standing in the middle of the street  strafing a moving vehiccle with a machine gun

1/12/14

I'm watching  Tinker, Tailer, Soldier, Spy (2011) and see Tom Hardy (Ricki Tarr) and Gary Oldman (George Smiley) in that one , too.  Solid scene when  Tarr is explaining to Smiley about what went wrong  in Turkey. Hardy looks a little different but his eyes convinced me he was Lawless.

2/10/14

Wearing a brown bag  with the words " I'm not fanmous anymore". Not sure  if he's spoiled, weary or what.

6/28/14

Shia busted for smoking pot and being an a-hole in a theater. Now if he would've been caught with moonshine....

11/21/14

Proposal for Lawlwss 2014: Realty TV- BO gives amnesty to illegals and Ferguson,MO police officers' families are being threatened.

1/10/15

Mark Lanegan and the Bootleggers covering  white light, white heat

8/1/15

re-visiting some Nick Cave songs today

1/20/16

I'm not  up on the latest movies but it seems Tom Hardy has appeared in about ten movies since "Lawless".

7/9/16

When Gary Oldman came on the Hollywood acting scene in the early 80s, I didn't foresee him  having such a long active career.

10/28/16

How about #Lawless2 based on the #BundyBunch as seven leaders were cleared of the charges against them? Big slapdown of the #fbi and the feds. Plenty of bad stuff on both sides to make an interesting movie.

2/12/17

Maybe #LaBeouf  will use the Lawless title for a self biopic. On 1/26/17 he was charged with assault and harassment after a confrontation with a man at the exhibit on #trump, named #HEWILLNOTDIVIDE.US that was broadcast on the live-stream.

 The museum of moving image has shut down the exhibit.

4/19/17

Don't let LaBeouf divide us. #LOL. #hollywoodbrat

6/29/17

I've seen #stateofgrace a few times lately and think #garyoldman was stronger than #seanpenn in that 1990 flick.

1/8/17

#GaryOldman, an actor who doesn't toe the Hollwood PC line, won the Golden Globe best actor for portraying Winston Churchill in Darkest Hour .  #surprised

9/3/18

#oldman 's character  George Smiley's line about supposedly good spy intel in the movie Tinker tailor soldier spy: "It's just enough glitter amongst the chickenfeed."

08/02/20

Props to #NickCave 's script for The Proposition (2005) , a brutal Aussie  flick on rural Australia in the late 1800s. I got a kick out of a lighter scene when Charlie Burns (Guy Pearce) asks Jellon Lamb (John Hurt) , are you making fun of the Irish?

12/14/20

RIP #johnlecarre

12/26/20

#GeorgeBlake , the former MI6 officer and one of the Cold War's most infamous double agents died in Russia at the age 98. I'm guessing Lecarre created a character based on Blake who was jailed in London in 1960, but managed to escape in 1966 and flee to Russia.

1/1/22

Is it time for a remake of Miami Vice as Antwerp Vice? Mostly Gangs of Moroccan or Albanian heritage in Antwerp are able to bring in huge amounts of cocaine ashore through their connections at the ports. Antwerp is first and Rotterdam is second as cocaine gateways to Europe. Maybe a soundtrack by Nick Cave for the flick?