End of Watch is one of the best movies this year. And yes I am completely serious. And not only is it a fantastic movie, it might be one of the best cop films I have ever watched. Its written amazingly and acted just as brilliantly. The characters are amazingly fleshed out and seem like real people. It is a great movie from start to finish.
The movie follows Officers Brian Taylor (Jake Gyllenhaal) and Mike Zavala (Michael Pena) as they go through their days as police officers in one of the most dangerous zones in Los Angles. The characters of Taylor and Zavala are the greatest thing about this movie by far. Not only are they not perfect people, they're actually very flawed people. For example the movie opens with them chasing 2 suspects in a car. They PIT the car, get out and after being shot at, shoot and kill the suspects. The movie then shows after the killing were Taylor and Zavala are cleared of the shooting and acting like...well...kind of like douchebags. Not like bad people or anything but they act very arrogant and douchy. And the films achieves a monumental award by making you like them. That's right through a decent portion of this movie the characters act like arrogant douchebags...and you like them. And you don't just kind of like them, you really like them. Because they seem like real people. Everything about them, from the way they act, look, talk, and especially their friendship seems completely real and genuine. They act like arrogant douchebags but...come on, wouldn't you? They might act like douchebags, but in reality they're good cops, not just good cops but great cops.
I was with these guys 100%. Yeah, they acted like dicks sort of, but they earned it. And the weird part is later in the movie (in an amazingly tense and fantastic scene) they rescue three kids from a burning house at huge risk to themselves. They receive the Medal of Honor and everything and yet...they don't act like dicks after that. In fact there's a pretty subtle moment where they talk to each other about how they don't feel like heroes and, in fact, have no idea how a hero is supposed to feel. They take matters into their own hand and try and track down suspects and such and save quite a few people...they still don't act like dicks because of it. They sort of just keep the same level of dickishness and stick with it, actually it goes way down by the end of the movie.
The friendship between Taylor and Zavala is fantastic. They way they interact off of each other and talk to each other seems real and genuine. Alot of it is because of the excellent script (and directing) from David Ayer, but mostly it's because of Gylenhaal and Pena who deliever 2 of the greatest performance of their careers. They way the talk and even argue with each other, its brilliant. And the movie never does that stupid thing movies like to do, were they have a fight and stop being friends but realize in the end that they'll always be friends. No, none of that. Yeah, they argue and stuff but its just a part of their friendship, they take it in stride and roll with it.
The movie is also amazingly tense. Unlike most movies today that like to make a spectacle of action scenes to the point were they don't feel real and because of this are never really that tense, this movie takes the complete opposite approach. Its because you like the characters so much and its because, in a stroke of genius (yes i said genius), the film goes out of its way to hammer in the fact that Taylor and Zavala are not invincible. So, when shoot outs come or when car chases come they are some of the most intense scenes of the year precisely because you feel that they are not invincible. You know they can be hurt, or even killed, if something goes wrong and it serves the action in a dramatic way. This all means that every time they get shot at, have a car chase, enter a home (were you can just feel that something bad is in there), or enter a burning building you are on the edge of your seat with tension.
The movie is also horrifying in a human, realistic way. I won't go into too much detail because, you know...spoilers... but almost everytime Taylor and Zavala go into a house, something terrible has gone down, and again its the reactions from the characters that make the scenes work. They see something that's inhumane and horrible and they get mad, which in turn makes you get mad.
The ending is also just...beautiful. Again not gonna go into too much detail because spoilers, but..wow. The ending shootout is one of the most intense scenes I have sat through in a long, long time. And because you feel that sense of danger for the characters it makes even worse. And they way that shootout ends...you have to see it. It defied every single convention of what you would think and even what I thought was going to happen. There is no big epic speech at the end either. Gyllenhaal's "speech" at the end is one sentence. That's right, one sentence. Four words. And that one sentence, those four words, hold more weight and power behind them than entire movies do. There is so much emotion and power in just those four words that it almost brought me to tears. I would like to hammer it in FOUR WORDS. This movie did more with four words than alot of movies can do in a 2 hour run time.
I would like to compliment this movie on its directing too. It employs a half documentary style (yes its actually explained) and half conventionally shot narrative and it works. It works completely. I only saw one other movie by David Ayer and that was Harsh Crimes and the only thing I really remember is what powerhouse performances Christian Bale and Freddy Rodriguez gave. And Ayer did it again. He got, what I think, are 2 of the most honest, realistic best performances of the entire year. And that is a very big feat. I cannot compliment this movie enough on what it did. It defied my expectations and actually surpassed them exceptionally. Everything about it is excellently done from the directing, to the writing and acting is just wonderful. I implore you to go see it.
No comments:
Post a Comment