CREDIT: WEINSTEIN COMPANY
Shia LaBeouf shakes off his Transformers stigma in Lawless.

No longer is Shia LaBeouf the one-trick pony from Michael Bay's Transformers franchise; the young actor has grown into a multifaceted performer with his brilliant dramatic performance in John Hillcoat's Lawless.

The latest dramatic period film from Hillcoat, best known for his 2009 take on Cormac McCarthy's post-apocalyptic novel The Road, follows the lives of the Bondurant brothers during the Great Depression in Virginia. The brothers — Howard, the oldest and a veteran of WWI; Forrest, who fought the Spanish Flu and won; and Jack, the youngest and most inexperienced in the ways of the world — are making it through the tough times by bootlegging their own brew of moonshine. When a new lawman comes rolling into town, the Bondurants stand firm and vow to do what it takes to evade the long arm of the law.

Taking centre screen as the bootlegging brothers Howard, Forrest and Jack are Jason Clarke, Tom Hardy and LaBeouf, respectively. Clarke, perhaps best remembered for his role as Red Hamilton in 2009's Public Enemies, brings a distinct Depression-era tone to his role of the oldest and most hardened Bondurant brothers.

Hardy, meanwhile, fresh off his terrifying performance as Bane in this summer's The Dark Knight Rises, plays it a little closer to home with a much more subtle, if no less spine-chilling, kind of hardness.

Finally, but certainly not least of all, LaBeouf plays the youngest and most naive of the Bondurants. LaBeouf truly shines in this role, which for him feels dramatically different from any of his previous work; he embodies such a desperate yet determined character so completely it becomes easy to get lost in his performance.

Playing opposite the lawless Bondurants is Guy Pearce as Charlie Rakes, the new law in town. As if Pearce wasn't unsettling enough on screen normally, now playing a good guy who you don't want to triumph with his sinister manner of speech and creepy lack of eyebrows, Pearce takes it to a whole new level.

But we can't overlook the outstanding female performances in Lawless; though somewhat in the background, their time on screen is no less powerful. Jessica Chastain, who seems to have found her place in period pieces, and Mia Wasikowska bring to life the women of the Great Depression who inspire love and kindness from otherwise hardened men.

What is truly striking about Lawless and what makes the film's story resound with such intensity is the gritty realism of the time. Lawless doesn't shy away from any of the violence, dirtiness or desperation of the Great Depression, and although at times it can be difficult to digest, anything less would have greatly taken away from the film's potency.

Not one for the faint-hearted, Lawless is a down and dirty look at the so-called "criminals" of a time when men were hard and life was harder. If you're intrigued by oldschool bad guys just trying to get by, then Lawless is not one to be missed.

Rating: 4 out of 5