BUZZWORTHY: Shia LaBeouf And Tom Hardy Are ‘Lawless’

The typically European-heavy Cannes Festival has no lack of American contenders this year, including John Hillcoat’s star-studded Lawless featuring Shia LaBeouf, Tom Hardy, Guy Pearce, Jessica Chastain and Mia Wasikowska.

Based on the true story of the bootlegging Bondurant Brothers, Lawless narrates the three siblings’ epic gangster saga set in Prohibition Virginia. The Bondurants break all rules and defy all authority — from the government to the mafia — in pursuit of the ever-elusive American Dream, becoming outlaws and heroes at once.

This tale of grand proportions is inspired by the real-life stories of the Bondurant family as told in Matt Bondurant’s 2008 novel The Wettest County In The World and depicts the gritty reality of the Depression era in its deep-seated corruption and unflinching violence. But, as Gary Oldman, who stars as gangster Floyd Banner, ventures in the trailer, “It is not the violence that sets men apart. It is the distance he is prepared to go.”

The Daily Beast numbers the film among its “Hottest Cannes Films” and The Wall Street Journal predicts its success by comparing it to similarly violent neo-Western No Country for Old Men, which premiered in Cannes and clinched at the Oscars in 2007. Lawless is set to premiere in the U.S. on August 31.

—GEMMA JUAN-SIMO

Watch the trailer for Lawless here: