“Out of the Furnace,” Scott Cooper’s brutal look at life in an economically depressed steel town, earned largely positive notices after it premiered at the AFI Fest in Hollywood on Saturday night, although a few critics noted that this dark thriller may face a lot of hurdles if it wants to break into the Oscar race.
The movie, which stars Christian Bale, Woody Harrelson and Casey Affleck, centers on two Rust Belt brothers, one an Iraq War veteran and the other a convict struggling to repair his life. Issues like drug addiction and post-traumatic stress also bubble up in the hardscrabble drama, which debuts on Dec.