Live by Night
Warner Bros. | Release Date: December 25, 2016 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
49
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 43 Critic Reviews
Positive:
9
Mixed:
31
Negative:
3
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
60
New York Magazine (Vulture)David EdelsteinJan 19, 2017
Once Affleck’s Joe gets to Florida, Live by Night loses its pulse and you’re left with a lot of pale characters, secondhand plotting, and maybe second thoughts about the daffy idea of a liberal-humanist gang boss. Read full review
60
Time OutTomris LafflyDec 21, 2016
There’s a lot of cinema to admire here. And being reminded of the directorial talents of Affleck—undeniably a more accomplished filmmaker than an actor—is no minor event. Read full review
60
VarietyOwen GleibermanDec 21, 2016
The film is sharply written and crafted, lavishly photographed, impeccably acted, with lots of twists and turns — yet for all that, it somehow lacks zing. Read full review
60
The Hollywood ReporterDavid RooneyDec 21, 2016
Live By Night is solid enough entertainment, but it lacks the nasty edge or narrative muscularity to make it memorable. Read full review
58
Tampa Bay TimesSteve PersallJan 10, 2017
Live by Night is ambitious to a fault, with so much material and technical pizzazz that a cable miniseries format might have been a better way to go. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleJan 19, 2017
It doesn’t help matters that the movie seems to end three times before it ends, and none of those ends are satisfying. Read full review
50
RogerEbert.comBrian TallericoJan 13, 2017
It’s a movie with effective scenes and character choices, they’re just not linked together in any way that makes them entertaining or emotionally resonant as a whole. Read full review
50
Philadelphia InquirerTirdad DerakhshaniJan 12, 2017
It's intriguing enough to suck you in, but confusing, fragmentary, frustrating. Read full review
50
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsJan 12, 2017
The damper here is Affleck, who appears to have been too concerned with placing himself just so, and then posing, so that nothing drew attention away from cinematographer Robert Richardson's pretty light. Read full review
50
Boston GlobeTy BurrJan 12, 2017
Affleck the screenwriter seems to have dumped the story onto the kitchen table and pushed it around like dough, hoping for some shape to emerge. It resists. Read full review
50
Washington PostAnn HornadayJan 12, 2017
The visual and performative elements are polished enough in Live by Night, but it lacks any sense of urgency. Read full review
50
MTV NewsAmy NicholsonJan 12, 2017
Live by Night loses energy whenever Sienna Miller’s not around. She makes this world with its showdowns about machismo and machine guns seem fresh, instead of the same old antler clashes. Read full review
50
The Seattle TimesSoren AndersenJan 11, 2017
Affleck sports plenty of snappy ’20s fashions, tailored double-breasted suits, often cream-colored, and elegant Borsalino-style fedoras. He’s dressed to kill for sure. Too bad his movie is so deadly dull. Read full review
50
ScreenCrushMatt SingerJan 10, 2017
Live by Night is a very mixed bag: Earnest, handsome, even passionate — and also slow, digressive, and a little bland. Read full review
50
Movie NationRoger MooreJan 10, 2017
Live by Night gets lost almost from the moment it leaves Lehane and Affleck’s home turf, Boston. Read full review
50
The Film StageDan MeccaJan 5, 2017
There’s a whole lot going on throughout Live by Night. Somewhere in there is a crime film worthy of its intention. Read full review
50
Wall Street JournalJoe MorgensternDec 29, 2016
For all its sporadic philosophizing and belated stabs at romance, Live by Night is cold and inert at its core. That’s really the long and short of it. Read full review
50
Village VoiceBilge EbiriDec 23, 2016
Somewhere inside the 128-minute Live by Night is a reasonably solid 168-minute movie struggling to get out. No, that’s not a typo: You can sense the contours of an absorbing story as writer/director/star Ben Affleck’s slapdash and fragmented assemblage limps along. Most of the pieces are there, but they remain pieces. Read full review
50
The New York TimesManohla DargisDec 22, 2016
Live by Night is a messy, unfocused movie about ambition, lost ideals, corrupt men and a thief whose idea of life on his own terms means pulling the trigger. Read full review
50
Los Angeles TimesMark OlsenDec 22, 2016
The movie is handsomely mounted with upscale production values, but it feels sluggish and disjointed. Read full review
50
ObserverRex ReedDec 22, 2016
Live By Night boils over with ambience and charged with details, from Roaring 20s flapper costumes to shootouts in period cars, but too many aborted narratives in Affleck’s lifeless screenplay intertwine, fanning the confusion, while other subplots are abandoned altogether. Read full review
50
We Got This CoveredJoseph HernandezDec 21, 2016
Overstuffed and disappointing, Live By Night wastes a strong supporting cast. It's not a total loss, but it doesn’t hold up against the rest of Affleck’s filmography. Read full review
50
New York Daily NewsStephen Whitty Dec 21, 2016
Although Affleck's been a decent director - capturing real local color in "Gone Baby Gone" and "The Town," building tension nicely in "Argo" - his work here is dim and dull. Live by Night may be about rum, but the pacing is like molasses. Read full review
50
IndieWireEric KohnDec 21, 2016
At their worst, Affleck’s roles are stern and lifeless without soul, pretty sculptures with nothing inside. It was only a matter of time before he made a movie that embodied that lesser side of his career. Read full review
42
ConsequenceDominick Suzanne-MayerJan 11, 2017
In its unwillingness to settle on a singular approach, Live By Night undercuts the things that occasionally do work, and leaves it a film in search of a grander purpose. Read full review
40
The TelegraphTim RobeyJan 12, 2017
The movie is immaculately dressed, but there’s a mannequin blandness lurking beneath: it’s all logistics, no guts. Read full review
40
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzJan 12, 2017
Live by Night is a mess. It’s got some interesting elements that Affleck, who wrote the script based on a Dennis Lehane novel, surprisingly can’t pull together. And, it must be said, his performance in the lead role isn’t up to snuff. Read full review
40
Austin ChronicleKimberley JonesJan 11, 2017
Before a foot of film was ever shot on Live by Night, Affleck had already made a decision that would be the film’s undoing. He cast himself as the lead. Read full review
40
EmpireDan JolinJan 9, 2017
A handsome period drama with the occasional impressive flourish, but despite its rich subject matter, it's Affleck’s weakest film yet as a director. Read full review
40
The GuardianPeter BradshawJan 6, 2017
By the end of a long two hours, there’s not much life left. Read full review
40
Screen DailyTim GriersonDec 21, 2016
This Prohibition-era drama deals limply with themes of loyalty, love, power and redemption, but not in any unique way, its emotional punch as vague as its cipher of a main character. Read full review
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