Credit ought to be given to David Ayer for creating a freshly grim cop movie out of a creaky story that's been told n times in the cinema. Gripping, heartfelt and punchy, he sustains a kind of energy while building up emotional downpour. Ayer tells the story in pseudo-found footage, following two police officers, Brian Taylor (Jake Gyllenhaal) and Mike Zavala (Michael Peña) patrolling the streets of Southern LA. Partners are drawn into a set of different crimes, mostly lead by an anonymous group of thugs who are becoming more and more pissed with the duo.
Ayer weaves a story that is patriotic to its characters's form, their emotions and the actions that they would take. Brian and Mike loves each others as partners and they are both devoted to their loved ones; the latter to his wife and newborn, the former to his girlfriend (Anna Kendrick, who instantaneously sparkle in which role wasn't entirely needed in the story). Orchestrated are their characters who, while knows how to make fun with their time, also are intent to give sensible talks with each other. Brian and Mike's relationship as friends are massively dynamic and affecting. One crime "rattles the tail of the snake," as a military told Taylor after rescuing a number of people in a hidden human trafficking session lead by the Hispanic thugs. Soon enough, unknowingly, Taylor and Mike are targets and "the snake is about to bite with it's head."
Ayer's shakey-cam treatment doesn't work all the time, and from the movie it's knowledgeable that a vehicle-camera can make the audience motion sick. And that tripod-less shots contribute a tad diziness, but the remainder of these excesses are easily forgotten with Ayer's often shifting of point-of-view from the first-person to the third; the found-footage to the omniscient view.
The script of the film, while no dramatic story may be found, is one of the best cop tales to be told in cinema in recent memory, because frankly, sometimes, uncovering rich people's secrets doesn't really work on us anymore. And in End of Watch, we are instead drawn in to the lives of these people who are in fact human themselves. They're not simply body of authorities that throw a criminal to the ground face-down, that handcuffs, that puts felon to jail with silver bars. Ayer impressively shows the human side of cops, something honestly refreshing to see.
Inspired performances from lead roles sure contribute a great deal of excellence in the film, but it's Ayer's patriotism to this sub-genre that leads the film to triumph. Hearty, emotional while all the while displaying flashy action, End of Watch is a film too rare to pass up. A-
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