Study on capitalism, greed, corruption, and the falsity of the so-called American Dream presented through the occurrences of a businessman, perfectly played by Oscar Isaac, in his quest of growing his “honourable” heating oil business in the New York of 1981.

As mentioned, the movie serves as mainly a character study of highly competitive and pushing business maverick Abel Morales (Oscar Isaac) once he is faced by adversity, as he encounters various hurdles (District Attorney tax investigation, stolen trucks filled with oil from his fleet, staff confrontation, risky investments, and family issues), that will put to the test his apparent honest and clean practices.

Oscar Isaac, basically on-screen during the entire film, excels in his performance of this highly moral, but also ruthless, ambitious, and conflicted man, making basically each of the scenes in which he appears great. But, concurrently, not the same can be said for the rest of the cast which although being quite a stellar one (Jessica Chastain, Albert Brooks, and David Oyelowo, among many others) and not being considered bad, they just can’t keep up with Isaac, who is basically the driving force in each one of those scenes.

Equally, we see how director J.C. Chandor tries to find a balance between more action-driven stories and more slow-burning ones, but the results are quite uneven. Overall, the picture excels in those quieter and more sustained by dialogue ones, which are basically the ones revolving on purely financial aspects (taking place in restaurants, offices, barbershops, or hospitals). On the other hand, the chases, shoot-outs, and such simply feel to squeezed in to give the movie a more supposedly thrilling and electrifying speed and movement which does not need at all.

For what it regards to the photography, we can give it a very good assessment as well. Although some of the camera positions and frames seem derivative, the atmosphere and environment build for the film, focusing on the least sexy and cinematic side of New York, basically taking place in its more industrial area with a simple skyline as a backdrop provides a rather engaging and different perspective to the usual view New York in movies.

After all, the picture can be determined as a very solid and mostly successful effort in displaying the inherent corruption of the capitalist and “profit-thirsty” system ruling in this particular case in the United States of America of the eighties but easily extrapolated to any part of the world in current times as well. Perfectly lead by Isaac and with attractive photography, J.C. Chandor’s film could have been even more poignant if his direction and script, although still good, would have been more focused and fixed in fewer storylines and had chosen one singular style, favourably the slower paced one.