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Live by Night

  • 20162016
  • RR
  • 2h 9m
IMDb RATING
6.4/10
57K
YOUR RATING
POPULARITY
4,542
144
  • Cast & crew
  • User reviews
  • Trivia
  • IMDbPro
Ben Affleck, Chris Cooper, Brendan Gleeson, Chris Messina, Zoe Saldana, Sienna Miller, and Elle Fanning in Live by Night (2016)
In the roaring 1920s, when Prohibition hasn't stopped the flow of booze in an underground network of gangster-run speakeasies, the opportunity to gain power and money is there for any man with enough ambition and nerve. Joe Coughlin, the son of the Boston Police Superintendent, long ago turned his back on his strict upbringing for the spoils of being an outlaw. But even among criminals there are rules and Joe breaks a big one: crossing a powerful mob boss by stealing his money and his moll. The fiery affair ends in tragedy, setting Joe on a path of revenge, ambition, romance and betrayal that propels him out of Boston and up the ladder of Tampa's steamy rum-running underworld.
Play trailer2:06
26 Videos
99+ Photos
  • Action
  • Thriller

A group of Boston-bred gangsters set up shop in balmy Florida during the Prohibition era, facing off against the competition and the Ku Klux Klan.A group of Boston-bred gangsters set up shop in balmy Florida during the Prohibition era, facing off against the competition and the Ku Klux Klan.A group of Boston-bred gangsters set up shop in balmy Florida during the Prohibition era, facing off against the competition and the Ku Klux Klan.

IMDb RATING
6.4/10
57K
YOUR RATING
POPULARITY
4,542
144
  • Director
    • Ben Affleck
  • Writers
    • Ben Affleck(screenplay by)
    • Dennis Lehane(based on the novel by)
  • Stars
    • Ben Affleck
    • Elle Fanning
    • Brendan Gleeson
Top credits
  • Director
    • Ben Affleck
  • Writers
    • Ben Affleck(screenplay by)
    • Dennis Lehane(based on the novel by)
  • Stars
    • Ben Affleck
    • Elle Fanning
    • Brendan Gleeson
  • See production, box office & company info
    • 193User reviews
    • 305Critic reviews
    • 49Metascore
  • See more at IMDbPro
    • Awards
      • 3 nominations

    Videos26

    Trailer #2
    Trailer 2:06
    Trailer #2
    Trailer #1
    Trailer 2:19
    Trailer #1
    Youll Be A King
    Clip 0:43
    Youll Be A King
    Bodies Will Pile Up
    Clip 0:40
    Bodies Will Pile Up
    Favorable Terms
    Clip 0:50
    Favorable Terms
    Lets Go
    Clip 0:52
    Lets Go
    Why Am I Talking To You
    Clip 1:10
    Why Am I Talking To You
    Pick Our Sins
    Clip 0:48
    Pick Our Sins
    Charm The Devil
    Clip 0:49
    Charm The Devil
    Free To Leave
    Clip 0:43
    Free To Leave
    Live by Night
    Featurette 6:05
    Live by Night
    E Fanning
    Interview 3:04
    E Fanning

    Photos229

    Ben Affleck and Sienna Miller in Live by Night (2016)
    Ben Affleck and Chris Messina in Live by Night (2016)
    Sienna Miller in Live by Night (2016)
    Chris Messina in Live by Night (2016)
    Ben Affleck and Chris Messina in Live by Night (2016)
    Ben Affleck in Live by Night (2016)
    Chris Cooper in Live by Night (2016)
    Ben Affleck and Chris Cooper in Live by Night (2016)
    Ben Affleck and Sienna Miller in Live by Night (2016)
    Ben Affleck and Chris Messina in Live by Night (2016)
    Ben Affleck and Zoe Saldana in Live by Night (2016)
    Elle Fanning in Live by Night (2016)

    Top cast

    Edit
    Ben Affleck
    Ben Affleck
    • Joe Coughlinas Joe Coughlin
    Elle Fanning
    Elle Fanning
    • Loretta Figgisas Loretta Figgis
    Brendan Gleeson
    Brendan Gleeson
    • Thomas Coughlinas Thomas Coughlin
    Chris Messina
    Chris Messina
    • Dion Bartoloas Dion Bartolo
    Remo Girone
    Remo Girone
    • Maso Pescatoreas Maso Pescatore
    Robert Glenister
    Robert Glenister
    • Albert Whiteas Albert White
    Matthew Maher
    Matthew Maher
    • RD Pruittas RD Pruitt
    Sienna Miller
    Sienna Miller
    • Emma Gouldas Emma Gould
    Miguel
    Miguel
    • Esteban Suarezas Esteban Suarez
    • (as Miguel J. Pimentel)
    Zoe Saldana
    Zoe Saldana
    • Gracielaas Graciela
    Chris Cooper
    Chris Cooper
    • Chief Figgisas Chief Figgis
    Titus Welliver
    Titus Welliver
    • Tim Hickeyas Tim Hickey
    Max Casella
    Max Casella
    • Digger Pescatoreas Digger Pescatore
    Christian Clemenson
    Christian Clemenson
    • Ritz Investoras Ritz Investor
    J.D. Evermore
    J.D. Evermore
    • Virgil Beauregardas Virgil Beauregard
    • (as JD Evermore)
    Clark Gregg
    Clark Gregg
    • Calvin Bondurantas Calvin Bondurant
    Anthony Michael Hall
    Anthony Michael Hall
    • Gary L. Smithas Gary L. Smith
    Chris Sullivan
    Chris Sullivan
    • Brendan Loomisas Brendan Loomis
    • Director
      • Ben Affleck
    • Writers
      • Ben Affleck(screenplay by)
      • Dennis Lehane(based on the novel by)
    • All cast & crew
    • See more cast details at IMDbPro

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    Storyline

    Edit
    Boston, 1926. The '20s are roaring. Liquor is flowing, bullets are flying, and one man sets out to make his mark on the world. Prohibition has given rise to an endless network of underground distilleries, speakeasies, gangsters, and corrupt cops. Joe Coughlin, the youngest son of a prominent Boston police captain, has long since turned his back on his strict and proper upbringing. Now having graduated from a childhood of petty theft to a career in the pay of the city's most fearsome mobsters, Joe enjoys the spoils, thrills, and notoriety of being an outlaw. But life on the dark side carries a heavy price. In a time when ruthless men of ambition, armed with cash, illegal booze, and guns, battle for control, no one-neither family nor friend, enemy nor lover-can be trusted. Beyond money and power, even the threat of prison, one fate seems most likely for men like Joe: an early death. But until that day, he and his friends are determined to live life to the hilt. Joe embarks on a dizzying journey up the ladder of organized crime that takes him from the flash of Jazz Age Boston to the sensual shimmer of Tampa's Latin Quarter to the sizzling streets of Cuba. Live by Night is a riveting epic layered with a diverse cast of loyal friends and callous enemies, tough rumrunners and sultry femmes fatales, Bible-quoting evangelists and cruel Klansmen, all battling for survival and their piece of the American dream. At once a sweeping love story and a compelling saga of revenge, it is a spellbinding tour de force of betrayal and redemption, music and murder, that brings fully to life a bygone era when sin was cause for celebration and vice was a national virtue. —Anonymous
    • organized crime
    • prohibition
    • love
    • revenge
    • kkk
    • 436 more
    • Plot summary
    • Plot synopsis
    • Taglines
      • The American Dream has a price
    • Genres
      • Action
      • Thriller
    • Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)
      • Rated R for strong violence, language throughout, and some sexuality/nudity
    • Parents guide

    Did you know

    Edit
    • Trivia
      This was the first feature film directed by Ben Affleck that wasn't nominated for any Academy Awards.
    • Goofs
      At the movies with his son, Joe muses about the rise of Hitler and suggests that it is unlikely there will be another war. As the credits roll, the production year is MCMXLI (1941).
    • Quotes

      Joe Coughlin: I don't wanna be a gangster. Stopped kissing rings a long time ago.

    • Connections
      Featured in WatchMojo: Top 10 Movies of 2016 Already Getting Oscar Buzz (2016)
    • Soundtracks
      Sugartime
      Written by Odis 'Pop' Echols (as Odis Echols) and Charlie Phillips

    User reviews193

    Review
    Top review
    6/10
    A Disjointed Highlight Reel
    A movie based on a novel by Dennis "Mystic River, Shutter Island, Gone Baby Gone" Lehane, dealing with a revenge-seeking gangster, living in an uncomfortable nexus between Boston prohibition era gang wars, southern Floridian racial politics and revival tent religiousness. How, oh how did they screw this one up? How could they have taken a story so immediately appealing and thick with tried-and-true genre conventions exploring worthwhile themes, and turned it into a disjointed Frankenstein's monster? I'm not so much asking because I'm angry, I'm asking because I'm genuinely impressed.

    Live by Night centers on the complicated machinations of Boston hoodlum Joe Coughlin (Affleck) whose small time banditry captures the attention of rival mob bosses. While Joe is Irish (and the son of a police constable), his sympathies lie more or less with Italian mob boss Maso Pescatore (Girone). He further endears himself to Pescatore after Irish mob boss Albert White (Glenister) kills Coughlin's lover (Miller) and nearly kills him if not for the interference of Boston's finest. After a stint in jail, Joe vows revenge by administrating Pescatore's interests in Tampa while choking White and his crew out of the rum trade. While doing so, Joe falls in love with a local crime bosses sister (Saldana), truces with Tampa's Police Chief (Cooper) and receives the ire of the local KKK.

    Live by Night, for all its good intentions, has all the focus of a barrel of buckshot. It sprays its themes in every which way desperately hoping the audience will connect the dots with extended periods of voice over narration. When we're not forced to listen to Affleck's gravelly voiced monologues, we get to experience the actor himself, who uneasily takes the limelight by wearing his wardrobe with the color symbolism of a mood ring.

    The tragedy is as a proved actor and director, Affleck should have been able to take this kind of material and make it shine like a fifty cent piece. But due to maybe the vastness of the material (or maybe Warner Bros. penchant for meddling), Affleck just seems unsure of himself both in front and behind the camera. Each scene is caked with exciting period detail yet there's no pulse, no bustle, not vibrancy to everything that's put on the screen. There are a lot of good moments in the film (many provided by Matthew Maher's deep fried racist nincompoop), but because there's such a lack of focus or tension, each moment happens in a vacuum and slowly suffocates in the void.

    Live by Night feels like three great seasons of a decent cable show that's been chopped up and awkwardly smooshed together to make a highlights reel. Just like the skeleton of the casino that's being built in this film, everywhere you look there are hints of grandeur. Unfortunately that grandeur never comes and all you're left with is a great looking structure that's quickly sinking in a swamp of molasses.
    helpful•7
    2
    • bkrauser-81-311064
    • Jan 16, 2017

    Details

    Edit
    • Release date
      • January 13, 2017 (United States)
    • Country of origin
      • United States
    • Official sites
      • Official Faceboook
      • Official Site
    • Languages
      • English
      • Spanish
    • Also known as
      • Luật Ngầm
    • Filming locations
      • 1331 Newcastle Street, Brunswick, Georgia, USA
    • Production companies
      • Appian Way
      • Pearl Street Films
      • RatPac-Dune Entertainment
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Box office

    Edit
    • Budget
      • $108,000,000 (estimated)
    • Gross US & Canada
      • $10,378,555
    • Opening weekend US & Canada
      • $33,336
      • Dec 25, 2016
    • Gross worldwide
      • $22,678,555
    See detailed box office info on IMDbPro

    Technical specs

    Edit
    • Runtime
      2 hours 9 minutes
    • Color
      • Color
    • Sound mix
      • Dolby Atmos
      • Dolby Digital
      • Dolby Surround 7.1
    • Aspect ratio
      • 2.39 : 1

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