I haven't been able to make it to the movies so I figured I would do a review for one of last year's movies that I just barely saw. Here is my review of the police drama End of Watch.
David Ayer has either written or directed (or both) some of the best cop movies of the last decade plus. He did Training Day which garnered Denzel Washington an Oscar and SWAT which may be the most underrated cop movie of all time. Here he creates a masterpiece of a film that may be the best cop movie I have ever seen.
This movie follow two police officers, Brian Taylor and Mike Zavala, who are loosely based on a real life partnership from the 90s. They work for the LAPD Newton District, which they describe early in the film as one of the most dangerous districts in all of Los Angeles, and throughout the film it definitely lives up to that. Both of the young, but distinguished cops, get caught up making trouble for a Mexican drug cartel and the cartel "greenlights" them, or puts out a hit on their lives. This leads to the third act which is one of the most intense 20 minutes of any film I have seen in a long time, much like Ben Affleck's fantastic ending to The Town some years ago. The ending will leave you breathless, and that is all I will say about it.
When I first saw the preview of this, I thought it would be just a bunch of shooting and arrests, but it is so much more than that. This movie is about family, and the importance of looking out for one another. In one scene of the movie Taylor reluctantly follows his partner into a burning building to save a child, and then later tells him that he will have to follow him into a building. These exchanges, along with others show, with great power, the importance of love and friendship and brotherhood. Even the two men's wives grow to be like sisters throughout the movie.
What blew me away in this movie was the acting and cinematography. Jake Gyllenhall gives the best performance since Donnie Darko, if not his entire career, as Brian Taylor and it is a travesty he did not get an Oscar nomination for this movie. His performance in this was unquestionably better than Denzel Washington in Flight, and I would argue better than Hugh Jackman in Les Miserables. Michael Pena gives a fantastic performance as Mike Zavala as well. It is probably the best performance of his career, including Crash, which I consider to be one of the best movies of all time. I would be willing to argue that he also deserved an Oscar nomination over Alan Arkin from Argo (which, full disclosure, I consider to be the second best movie of last year behind Zero Dark Thirty). Even the supporting roles from Anna Kendrick, as Taylor's wife Janet, America Ferrera as a fellow officer, and the always solid Frank Grillo were tremendous. But what really blew me away in this movie was the cinematography. 97% of this movie is shot amateur documentary style from the perspective of Officer Taylor, who is shooting for a film class he is taking. It makes the movie very real.
In full disclosure, this movie is incredibly gritty. If you are at all sensitive, do not see this film. It is the sixth most profane movie every made (other than a documentary on the F word) and the violence is sometimes very in your face and realistic. Much of this is because of the documentary style so some people are shot at very close range right in your face. David Ayer does not apologize about the violence that sometimes come from police work. Overall though, it is very well done and in the right taste. I never once felt that this movie glorified the violence like in some other movies.
I will say that this movie, now having seen it, rocketed to my top 10 list of all time movies. It is solid from beginning to end, and the themes of family and love should tug at your heart a lot. If the ending of this movie doesn't make you emotional then check your pulse. The acting is tremendous, the writing and directing are first rate and this movie will be hard to top in its genre for a long time to come. I give it an A+.
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