Name : Joshua Rothkopf / Alias : Time Out New York
Further clarifies what might be the most promising career in American movies: an urban-headed filmmaker attuned to economies of place and time, with an eye on the vacant throne of Sidney Lumet.

Name : Peter Rainer / Alias : Christian Science Monitor
It's a gangster movie that tries to be more than that, not always successfully.

Name : Kenneth Turan / Alias : Los Angeles Times
It brings to mind the fierce New York-based productions of Sidney Lumet in particular but also the whole notion of character-driven, the-clock-is-ticking melodramas in general.

Name : David Edelstein / Alias : New York Magazine/Vulture
It holds you with its gravity and forces your respect. It's also talky, repetitive, thesis-driven, and often strangled by its own solemnity.

Name : Dana Stevens / Alias : Slate
For me A Most Violent Year remained an abstract idea of a great period crime drama, rather than a fleshly incarnation of one.

Name : Scott Foundas / Alias : Variety
A tough, gritty, richly atmospheric thriller .

Name : Tomas Hachard / Alias : NPR
It bears all the hallmarks of depth except for actual wisdom.

Name : Andrew O'Hehir / Alias : Salon.com
All this is rendered . in memorable and exemplary fashion. And it's all just a little more boring than it ought to be.

Name : Claudia Puig / Alias : USA Today
A revelation: meticulously constructed, brilliantly acted, suspenseful and sharply written.

Name : Kyle Smith / Alias : New York Post
"A Most Violent Year" is a small picture, but each brushstroke is laden with detail and craftsmanship.

Name : Joe Neumaier / Alias : New York Daily News
A movie that quietly but ferociously immerses us in a time and place, with atmosphere done in minimal yet evocative strokes.

Name : Stephen Whitty / Alias : Newark Star-Ledger
It's well-acted, nicely crafted and imaginatively envisioned; it shows yet another side to an interesting and rapidly developing filmmaker.

Name : Todd McCarthy / Alias : Hollywood Reporter
[Chandor] peels back the layers of his story and characters with the skill of an expert dramatist.

Name : Peter Travers / Alias : Rolling Stone
Chastain is killer good, and Isaac is an implosive powerhouse in a film that reflects a world where nothing is held sacred. You watch with nerves clenched, holding on tight.

Name : Joe Morgenstern / Alias : Wall Street Journal
Mr. Chandor gives Mr. Isaac everything he needs for a tour de force performance, and the actor makes the most of what he gets.

Name : Chris Nashawaty / Alias : Entertainment Weekly
It's the kind of uncompromising movie we don't see much of anymore. And it makes you nostalgic for a time when the world was worse and the movies were better.

Name : Stephanie Zacharek / Alias : Village Voice
It's really just sort of.dumb.

Name : David Denby / Alias : New Yorker
Some of the menacing atmosphere, and even a few scenes, descend from the first two "Godfather" movies. But, in fact, Chandor has done something startling: he has made an anti-"Godfather."

Name : A.O. Scott / Alias : New York Times
"A Most Violent Year" presents an honorable man struggling to stay true to his values in the face of temptation. It is also the portrait of a brilliant hustler working a very long con. It's a terrific movie either way.

Name : Andrew Lapin / Alias : NPR
The beats of the movie, not to mention the winking title and the time period, make A Most Violent Year feel like it should be another bloody tale about the dark side of American greed. But Chandor is too smart to go down that path.

Name : Mike D'Angelo / Alias : AV Club
Can Chandor make a first-rate film that isn't a testosterone fest? That's the next challenge-one that he shares with the industry as a whole.

Name : Alonso Duralde / Alias : TheWrap
Just when we're settling into the film being a Lumet-ian character-driven drama, Chandor will, on more than one occasion, organically segue to an adrenaline-packed truck chase that's as exciting as any big action-movie moment of recent memory.