“End of Watch”, a film by David Ayer, provides another good
example of layered plotting, where the story exists inside images or films made
by the lead character, as well as “on the outside”.
Jake Gyllenhaal (who helped produce the movie) plays a
charismatic young Los Angeles police
officer Brian Taylor. Although the buzz cut may sound intrusive, he comes
across as someone who makes everything happen.
He records all his work for an apparent personal film project with a
flash drive camera and camcorder, and much of the film is seen through his
images (hence the 1.85:1 aspect). The film expands to showing intelligence
videos from Homeland Security later.
He has a close personal relationship with his LAPD partner
Mike Zavala (Michael Pena), who is a bit earthier. He got married sooner and his wife (Natalie Martinez) has a baby on the way .
Brian has a little more demanding girl friend (Anna Kemdrick). The offiers watch each other’s backs, and
could raise each other’s kids.
Curiously, a couple of gay jokes (one about “don’t ask don’t tell”) slip
into their banter.
Brian, “the smart one” (maybe he could have worked for
Facebook) is inquisitive, and keeps finding dangerous leads. Eventually, through some complications, the
pair stumble into a major drug cartel and human trafficking tucked away in
south LA. They’re in over their heads
and the fibbies get called in. And they’re all concerned about Brian’s ego and tendency to attract attention to his
smarts. They warn him, as had his own
bosses (like David Harbour). That leads
to the film’s climax, that become tragic for one of the two officers.
This movie is quite riveting, with the constant up-close
style that reminds one of “Cloverfield” (maybe even “Strange Days”). The language is coarse (don’t take your
mother to see it), and some of the violence and mayhem at the end
gratuitous.
I should have seen this sooner. I got in free at the Regal Potomac Yard on my
Regal Crown card. That complex doesn’t
seem to have converted to all digital yet, but all the auditoriums are big.
The official site from Open Road is here. The film was financed with the help of the "EFF Hedge Fund".
My own last stay in LA was on the
405, about 10 miles from downtown any about 20 miles from South LA, where this
film takes place. Various local smaller police departments were used to
make this ambitious ":independent".film. It deserves to be on
the Oscar list for direction.
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