...need not make for a most violent film. Case in point: for his third feature, J.C. Chandor leaves behind the existential crisis of All is Lost and returns to Margin Call's explorations of morally murky moneymaking in New York City. This time, instead of toxic assets, there's an actual, physical product at stake: heating oil. And relative newcomer (to both country and industry) Abel Morales (a typically assured Oscar Isaac) is looking to break out with a big deal: the purchase of some waterfront storage facilities. What's unusual is that he's trying to do it without getting his hands any dirtier than necessary (he doesn't let his drivers carry guns, despite the manifest risk of being held up by his competition in the crime-ridden early '80s). Maybe it's because the law is squeezing him almost as hard as the old guard. Or maybe it's because he wants something finer than a big house and a place at the table. Chandor deliberately keeps things on simmer for much of the runtime: the point here is to avoid the violence that bends the time out of joint. The result is thinky and moody and admirable, but not always engaging. (2014) — Matthew Lickona