Mob City

The period details are exquisite, aside from a couple of stray modernisms that wander into the dialogue here and there.... But the brilliance of the series is the balancing act of the scripts, by Darabont and Buntin, executed with astonishing precision between the past and the modern version of the past.

After two hours, Mob City gets its hooks into viewers and should leave many begging for more. But it takes some time to get there.

Mob City would be better if it were just a little bit more raw--there’s something amiss when a putative sleazy jazz dive looks like you could eat off the floors. But its proudly pulpy sensibilities and its startling plot twists make it a whiskey-and-a-shot pleasure.

Holliday Grainger is an excellent Bonnie.... Emile Hirsch, a very good actor, plays Clyde as a passive nonentity.... Bonnie and Clyde seem as remote and illogical as another notorious couple of the era, Wallis Simpson and the Duke of Windsor. [16 Dec 2013]

Glimmers of hope force their way through the fog of noir cliche.

Darabont certainly proves his love of the period, of pulp fiction and of the dark and moody film technique. He's less convincing when it comes to selling a story.

Mob City fails to make connections between now and the repercussions of the ‘40s, say, the marginalization of democratic debate, the pathologizing of women’s agency and autonomy, and the hysterical politics of fear and insecurity in an increasingly global economy. These daunting themes remain off screen here, leaving only a series of monotonous conversations and shoot-outs.