Prohibition Problems

Lawless: Virginia, 1931--the Prohibition has been in the books for a few years and that gives the average American only one option: bootlegging. Franklin county aka "The wettest county in the world" is a magnet for bootleggers and the police officers looking to catch bootleggers, including the infamous Bondurant brothers. Forrest, Howard, and Jack Bondurant have their craft down to a science and are known as the best in the area--even to some of Franklin county's finest. Howard (Jason Clarke, Death Race) is the expert distiller and deliveryman who always makes sure to enjoy some of his own creation. Jack (Shia Labeouf, Transformers) is the runt-of-the-litter delivery truck driver and aspires to his brothers' expertise. Last but not least, Forrest (Tom Hardy, The Dark Knight Rises) is the family's gas station manager, muscle, and most recognized bootlegger. Throughout the film, these three encounter gangsters, love, friendship, pain, hardship and hate; but mostly hate. The state of Virginia takes drastic measures by calling upon the talents of Special Deputy Rakes (Guy Pearce, The King's Speech) to track down the county's distilleries by any means necessary. Not a spoiler alert, but, you are not going to side with Guy Pearce in this movie, there, I said it. Tom Hardy steals the show again in this one with this insanely engaging fight scenes and one-liners but doesn't leave his costars in the dust. Shia LaBeouf plays a really coming-of-age character dealing with the likes of Gary Oldman (The Dark Knight Rises) as a famous gangster and does so very well. Director John Hillcoat includes a lot of gore and intensity to tell this true story of rooting for the lawbreaker instead of the enforcer and drive its point across of a struggle worth strugglin' for. Grade: B+