Novel
- Hilarious in Hindsight: The Big Bad of the novel is Albert White; soon after the novel's publication, it was announced that Dennis Lehane would be a creative consultant on the fourth season of Boardwalk Empire, which features a character named... Albert "Chalky" White.
Film
- Ensemble Dark Horse: The film version of Loretta Figgis became this, even amongst mainstream reviewers, thanks to a powerful performance by Elle Fanning.
- Harsher in Hindsight: Since the movie revolves around bootleggers in Probibition Era, it can be very awkward watching this knowing that Ben Affleck was struggling with alcoholism at the time.
- Nightmare Fuel: The brutal beating Joe receives for being In Love with the Gangster's Girl. He's completely unable to retaliate, and receives a kick in his groin that makes him throw up. It can be painful to watch for male audiences.
- So Okay, It's Average: General consensus is that while it's not an awful film, it could have been a lot better and is regarded as Affleck's weakest directorial effort. It's in fact mostly due to Executive Meddling, as the movie was originally to be longer and more character-driven and ended up heavily recut by studio mandates.
