One of my all time favorites.

Good story, Not enough for a whole film

It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

Some well known, not necessarily brilliant, actors are collected to stroke a neophyte director's ego in a very tedious and boring film that is a direct steal from Visconti's "Rocco and His Brothers," right down to the soundtrack. Only there is nothing relevant about what is said, other than that there is corruption everywhere. C'mon, let's get a fresh idea or two before stealing from a classic. Charleze Theron delivers another chameleon like performance and Ellen Burstyn twitters away like always. Faye Dunaway has long ago convinced us that she hasn't any real idea of what acting is about other than trying to steal scenes, and Mark Walhberg covers character nuances from A-B(apathetic to bland) while huge pipe organs pound out prophetic over dramatic music to establish the doom to come. It was interesting to note that this pedestrian director didn't direct anything of note thereafter.

The Yards is a crime film featuring Mark Wahlberg, James Caan, Joaquin Phoenix, and Charlize Theron. In this drama, a young man joins the family business without knowing that he's entering a world of danger and deceit. It was written and directed by James Gray.Hot-headed Leo Handler has had some scrapes with the law and served time for a crime he didn't commit. Hoping to get his life back on track, he takes a job in the New York subway yards, secured by his Uncle Frank, who has a high-ranking position in the New York Transit Authority. The longer Leo works in the yards, the more he realizes that his uncle controls a corrupt underworld where graft, violent reprisals, and even death are just part of the job. Will Leo turn against his family in the name of justice, or will he keep quiet and ignore the danger and lawlessness that surround him?A very good film, and though obviously flawed, it does generate one form of elation: the feeling of seeing a young director stick to the guns of his tricky, ambitious material, and find the right people to tell his story. How it shifts toward crime drama through character rather than pure plot is hard to disclose without divesting twists. Inspired by real-life scandal, James Gray lets personal insight color Shakespearean shenanigans of privilege, panic and power. Overall, it is a sensitive, intelligent and ambitious variation on the traditional going-straight story; its ambiguity that makes the film interesting and a richly textured crime thriller with an authentic feel.

Visually, The Yards is very good, whether it is the direction or especially the photography, which is kind of the trademark of James Gray.Because script wise, it is very conventional and little inspired. The movie doesn't revolutionize at all what has already been made previously, and if the story unfolds pretty smoothly, it doesn't fully captivate, also because of a wheezing rhythm.The other big problem is the cast, little convincing. Joaquin Phoenix, though not bad, isn't transcending either, as always. As for Mark Wahlberg, he is too inexpressive and really lacks finesse in his acting for such a dramatic role.

It is a tale that has been told before. Nothing really new here. The cast was very good. The production design was OK. Lighting and sound should have been better. I wonder about the choices the director made.It is one thing to try to make a Noir film, but I was totally turned off by the hushed tones, and whispers. Conversations seemed to take place in echo chamber. As it continued to be unhearable, it became unwatchable.If you have a quiet media room, then you might get more out of this than I did.There are plenty of other crime dramas out there.