Jessica Chastain and Oscar Isaac’s A Most Violent Year Has Us Ready for Award Season

Emily Exton | September 18, 2014 4:00 pm

The race to award season is finally starting to pick up, thanks to today’s latest trailer. A Most Violent year, from director J.C. Chandor (All Is Lost, Margin Call), stars Oscar Isaac, and Jessica Chastain as an emerging power couple during the grim days of 1981 New York, surrounded by corruption and murder. At first glance, it’s like a darker, more honest sequel to American Hustle without the cleavage. Chastain has been nominated for two Academy Awards, while Chandor received a Best Original Screenplay nod for Margin Call. While Isaac and Inside Llewyn Davis were snubbed by Academy voters last year, he had a big 2013 thanks to his performance as the endearing yet frustrating folk singer in the Coen brothers film. Pair these resumes with the December 31 release date, and A Most Violent year seems fill in for award season picking — albeit dangerously accurate to the voting deadline. Will this be the film that gets Chastain over the Best Actress hump? She also stars in Christopher Nolan‘s Interstellar, which will be released on November 7. Because it’s always good to have options.