Live by Night

Joe was once a good man.

Set in the roaring 1920s, where Prohibition hadn’t managed to stop 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 and the son of the Boston Police Superintendent had long ago turned his back on his strict upbringing for the spoils of being an outlaw. But even among criminals there are rules and he breaks a big one: crossing a powerful mob boss by stealing his money and his moll. The fiery affair ends in tragedy, setting him 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. This film has the dubious distinction of holding the US record for biggest number of screens lost between week 2 and 3, even if Affleck’s other bomb, Gigli, scored a higher percentage drop for the same metric.

129 minutes.
No persons under 16 (Language, Violence).
Crime, Drama.

Showtimes

Please tell me you’re going to change that hat...

Credits

Cast	Ben Affleck, Elle Fanning, Remo Girone, Brendan Gleeson, Robert Glenister, Matthew maher, Chris Messina, Sienna Miller, Miguel, Zoe Saldana
Director	Ben Affleck
Screenplay	Ben Affleck, from the novel by Dennis Lehane
Music	Harry Gregson Williams
Cinematography	Robert Richardson
Editing	William Goldenberg
Sound formats
Soundtrack	Available
SA distributor	Times Media Films
Made in	2016
Produced by	Appian Way, Pearl Street Films, RatPac-Dune Entertainment, Warner Bros.

Official Site | IMDB page | FPB Report | ScreenIt Report | CommonSenseMedia Report
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Film and Publications Board (FPB) Report (SA)

Genre	Crime drama
Language	Strong and frequent
Nudity	Low impact and isolated (female breasts)
Sex	None
Violence	Strong, realistic and frequent
Prejudice	Instances of prejudicial language are present
Blasphemy	None
Drug abuse	None
Comments
These details are supplied by the FPB. If you have a problem with any of the above, please take it up directly with the FPB. Read the Classification Guidelines.

ScreenIt Report (USA)

Sex / Nudity	Violence	Blood / Gore / Gross
Guns / Weapons	Profanity	Alcohol / Drugs
Smoking	Disrespectful / Bad Attitude	Imitative Behaviour
Frightening / Tense Scenes	Jump Scenes	Tense Family Scenes
Music (Scary/Tense)	Music (Inappropriate)	Topics to talk about

CommonSenseMedia Report (USA)

Suggested age limit 17 +	Positive messages	Positive role models
Violence	Sex	Language
Consumerism	Drinking, drugs, smoking

Ratings

Scale (Max)	20
What the Critics say
Cape Argus / The Star Jamal-Dean Grootboom 'Night' is fatally wounded by inability to convince on all levels.	5
Die Burger Paul Boekkooi Affleck skiet hom in die voet.	10
Cape Times David Rooney Gangster saga lacks a nasty edge.	10
ScreenIt Jim Judy As a collective whole, the overall experience isn’t as successful as it feels disjointed and like it’s trying too hard, with Affleck’s recurring voice-over narration coming off as a desperate, yet lazy attempt to bring it all together.	9
Metacritic.com 43 critics	10
Rottentomatoes critics 188 critics	11
Rottentomatoes tomatometer Tomatometer Live by Night boasts visual style and an impressive cast, but they’re lost in a would-be crime saga that finds producer, director, and star Ben Affleck revisiting familiar themes to diminishing effect.	7
Movie Review Query Engine MRQE critics	10
CommonSenseMedia Staff evaluation Sluggish, uninspired mobster drama has lots of violence.	5
What the People say
Metacritic.com users 45 users	15
Rottentomatoes users 11522 users	11
Internet 9510 Netizens	13
Average .. 48%	10