EVERY MOMENT OF YOUR LIFE THEY STAND WATCH.

Two South Central beat cops (Jake Gyllenhaal, Michael Peña) get a little too close to the activities of a Mexican drug cartel. Director David Ayer returns for another gritty portrayal of life in the crime-ridden part of Los Angeles where he lived as a young man. This one has a semi-documentary feel to it as the cops bring a camera; a lot of effort has also gone into a realistic depiction of police work. The title is an indicator of where the story will take us, and the movie can’t quite escape that predictability, but this is nevertheless a highly charged drama that builds a funny, real and moving friendship between Brian and Mike (with a lot of help from the two stars).

2012-U.S. 109 min. Color. Produced by David Ayer, Matt Jackson, John Lesher. Written and directed by David Ayer. Cast: Jake Gyllenhaal (Brian Taylor), Michael Peña (Mike Zavala), Natalie Martinez (Gabby Zavala), Anna Kendrick (Janet), David Harbour, Frank Grillo… America Ferrera.

Trivia: Co-executive produced by Gyllenhaal.

Last word: “I really wanted to get it right, I wanted to get all the details right. I wanted it to be as seamless as possible and not have anyone call B.S. on me, because if you’re a professional cop, that’s your world. So a really good friend of mine, Jaime Fitzsimons, who spent 14 years on the job with the LAPD, was on set and helped prepare the actors and trained with the actors for five months. Nine times out of ten, I’d defer to him and say ‘Alright, you’re right, I want to get that right’. And on the tenth occasion, I’d say ‘Nah dude, I gotta do the director stuff here. We’re going to go Hollywood on this one’.” (Ayer, TIME)

IMDb