LIVE BY NIGHT | FAMILY MOVIE REVIEW INFORMATION FOR PARENTS AND KIDS

"LIVE BY NIGHT"
(2017) (Ben Affleck, Chris Messina) (R)

QUICK TAKE:: Drama: A WWI veteran turned low-level Boston criminal signs on to work for an Italian mobster in Florida in order to get revenge on an Irish mobster who wronged him in the past.

PLOT:

It's the 1920s and Joe Coughlin (BEN AFFLECK) is a low-level Boston criminal who turned to crime after returning from WWI despite his father, Thomas Coughlin (BRENDAN GLEESON), being a longtime cop. While he wants no part of the rum battle occurring between the Irish mob boss, Albert White (ROBERT GLENISTER), and Italian mafioso Maso Pescatore (REMO GIRONE), Joe is having a fling with Albert's girlfriend, Emma Gould (SIENNA MILLER), who he also uses as his "inside man" to pull off various heists. That doesn't end well for her, which also holds true for a bank robbery that results in the deaths of several police officers and Joe being sent off to prison for several years.

When Joe gets out, he wants revenge on Albert who's now operating out of Tampa, and thus aligns himself with Maso who sends him there to undermine his rival. Joined by one of his past associates, Dion Bartolo (CHRIS MESSINA), Joe meets with Cuban cigar business siblings Esteban (MIGUEL J. PIMENTEL) and Graciela Suarez (ZOE SALDANA) and tries to have them break ties with Albert. While the Boston criminals agree to criminal activity constraints set by local sheriff Chief Figgis (CHRIS COOPER) -- whose daughter, Loretta (ELLE FANNING), is headed off to Hollywood to be an actress -- they run afoul of Figgis' brother-in-law, RD Pruitt (MATTHEW MAHER), and his KKK cronies who don't take kindly to anyone whose ethnicity doesn't match theirs.

As they get their booze operation up and running and start building a casino, Joe and his team must not only contend with those men and Maso's son, Digger (MAX CASELLA), being sent to oversee the operations, but also Loretta who's returned to Florida a changed woman and is against gambling and other sins based on her newfound evangelism.

WILL KIDS WANT TO SEE IT?: Teenagers might, especially if they're fans of old-style gangster films and/or anyone who's in the cast.

WHY THE MPAA RATED IT: R: For strong violence, language throughout, and some sexuality/nudity.

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