Though writer/director J.C. Chandor sets this neo-noir in 1981 New York City, the recent peak of corruption and violence, it reflects equally on the current tarnish of the American Dream. As a result of unfettered capitalism the virtuous hero cannot succeed without seriously compromising himself.
Abel Morales (Oscar Isaac, a planet away from his Llewyn Davis) plays an ambitious Latino determined to become an American success without compromising his ethics. He dresses elegantly, tastefully, without the flash of the old film gangster. His speech and comportment show a man of tight control. He knows where he wants to get to — but will only take “the right path."
He bought his gangster father-in-law’s heating oil business but wants to succeed honestly. He has followed the standard practices of the industry. Now, as he struggles to raise the $1.5 million he needs to close the purchase of a waterfront property to receive and store international shipments, he’s threatened with criminal charges and suffers violent thefts of his oil. He resists the teamsters’ thuggish insistence on arming his drivers. He’s buying the property from an Orthodox Jewish businessman who is, like Abel, committed to an archaic code of conduct. He’ll flex to give Abel three extra days to raise the money, but he won’t be in the same room with Abel’s wife when she has to sign the contract.
Morales is a man of morals but he’s not quite Abel to sustain them — if he wants to succeed. To save his business he has to borrow from a rival at a usurious rate, mortgage the apartment building he shares with his kid brother and — climactically — tap the large sum his wife has been — without his knowledge — skimming off from the company. That’s tax evasion, the sub-standard practice of American business. Though that saves him from borrowing from a gangster, to escape the criminal charges Abel has to promise to support the DA’s political ambitions. So if Abel manages not to be owned by the gangster, he slips into a corrupt coalition with Lawrence ((David Oyelowo), the DA turned self-serving politician.
In a twist on the genre Abel’s enemy is not some gang boss, as he suspects, but free-lancers who have been stealing his loads to sell to his rivals. That’s the trickle-up theory of corruption, ambitious individuals working on their own, against the law, but abetted and rewarded by Abel’s rivals, who buy their plunder.
Like Abel, his wife Anna (Jessica Chastain) has climbed out of Brooklyn to live the high life. They’ve just moved into a new suburban estate. She wears only Armani. As Chastain plays her, her accent shifts between Brooklyn and Manhattan, like the two sets of books she she has maintained, and she doesn’t share her husband’s aversion to guns and their deployment. She’s proud that her husband is unlike her gangster dad, but it’s her calculated crookedness that saves Abel/s fortunes.
In contrast to Abel’s success, his hapless friend Julian (Elyes Gabel) aspires to Abel’s success. His plan is to progress from driving to sales, but he’s broken by the assault he suffers from thieves. On his first trip back he fights off the robbers with an illicit gun then flees. He doesn’t have Abel’s discipline or strength. He cracks under the feeling of vulnerability that stimulates Abel. Ultimately Julian is helpless, with nowhere to go, a family to support, no hope, so he kills himself. Abel’s first move is to stanch the tank’s bleed of oil. That’s the black blood at the heart of American capitalism.
The film closes with Alex Ebert singing his own stark summary of the film, “America For Me.” It’s a bitter song, about the ambition and selfishness that by denying compassion make even the apparent winners losers.
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