La La Land

Damien Chazelle, 2016

IMDB

3/5

After seeing La La Land it isn't surprising that it's an Oscar front-runner and exists virtually critic-proof. It checks off all of the things that Academy voters pine over: Musical elements, a love story, and a love letter to Los Angeles and particularly the golden age of Cinema. It might be THE movie to watch at home with your wife. And at least in my marriage, it's a movie that offers separate things for the two of us. She happened to be more emotionally connected to the romantic component of the film. For me, I found myself more invested in the variety of technical achievements made. Like how did Chazelle pull off that introductory sequence on the LA highway? What about the pool party segment? Or how did they create that planetarium sequence with the stars?

Jazz plays a large role in La La Land just as it did in Chazelle's last film Whiplash. Both have a sincere appreciation for the genre. Whiplash approached Jazz from more of a strict academic standpoint and La La is definitely more of a romantic standpoint. But there's a clear sense that Chazelle likes Jazz. Beyond that, Chazelle is someone who also seems very fond of classic cinema. And now after watching his last two contributions to film it's pretty clear that hes absorbed so much of what he's clearly passionate for. Chazelle is a pretty masterful filmmaker, that's quite clear.

One notable thing about La La Land is also the way that it depicts modern Los Angeles. Instead of making it an unforgiving landscape like last year's Tangerine, it approaches LA with daydreaming eyes. There is a deliberate attempt to paint Los Angeles as this fantastical place - as Sebastian (Ryan Gosling) and Mia (Emma Stone) navigate their way through scenes in the Griffith Observatory, Watts Towers and Chateau Marmont where a million classic LA films have been made.

It's interesting reflecting on La La Land. Because when personally evaluating this film it's not about whether or not it's a good film or a bad film. It's without question a GOOD film. Well made, well acted. Emma Stone will probably get an Oscar for her performance and she totally deserves it. She's unbelievable here. Gosling is great, the only real criticism you can make about him is maybe his singing chops aren't completely up to par but it's really not distracting at all. This is one of those films I have to judge on the impact that it had on me. Years from now will I be thinking about La La Land? That's the thing, I really don't think I will be. I will most certainly remember Whiplash, which clearly had more of a personal impact on me. Whiplash is one of the best films made in the past 10 years. Ten years from now I will probably look back on La La Land the same way I look back on The Artist - a well made movie that wasn't necesarilly made for someone like me. Something I can respect for what it is but something that isn't going to permanently reside in the depths of my memory.

Matchstick Men

Ridley Scott, 2003

IMDB

3/5

As someone who suffers with much milder form of OCD than Nicholas Cage's Roy character struggles with, Matchstick Men intrigued me. For anyone that struggles with the condition, it's an interference in your everyday life and can vary in severity of how debilitating it can be. The version of OCD that Roy struggles with is an all consuming form that consists of severe phobias and compulsions. An obsession with cleanliness. Nervous ticks with his eyes. Having to count to three before opening the door. Food phobias that cause him to basically just eat tuna out of the can on a daily basis. Cage pulls off this role very well; as he is able to exert some of the classic Nicholas Cage-iness with the Roy character. Matchstick Men is basically an examination of mental illness fitted into a con artist film molding. Much of the film is Roy and partner Frank (Sam Rockwell) working together. Cage and Rockwell play off each other well. You can also check off another film that Rockwell dances in. Has he done this in every film he has acted in? Matchstick Men is a pretty solid offering. Nicholas Cage bringing his distinctive energy. Sam Rockwell also bringing his distinctive energy. Ridley Scott bringing skillful direction, fueled by a really good script.

The Invitation

Karyn Kusama, 2016

IMDB

2/5

Do you know that feeling when you go to a restaurant and you are totally hungry and eager for some food. You sit down and order your food, only to wait another 1 hour and 20 minutes to actually be served? Well, in a sense that's what this film is like. The table is set early, as a group of friends gather for a dinner party. They haven't seen each other in 2 years. You slowly are served little tiny pieces of backstory. There was a divorce between main character Will (Logan Marshall-Green) and Eden (Tammy Blanchard). You soon find out why, and its important to hold back details here because it's an easy film to spoil. But she has changed to say the least. Will doesn't like this change. Because she appears to be numb, to be drugged up somehow or in some kind of trance. So after the figurative table is set, you are now waiting to see why they are there at this party. And you wait, and then there is some more waiting, and then you wait some more. Finally there is a payoff in this film, but it just comes too late. There is clearly not enough story here to create an elaborate film. There's the Hitchcockian method of skillfully building tension and then releasing it masterfully. Then there's this more elementary method of relying too much on that very tension and then not offering up enough when it is released. When the big revelation comes toward the end, there's not a whole lot of shock. Then the film just becomes gratuitous. Frustrating. None of the characters other than Will are really believable characters. Nobody you would encounter in real life. In any real life situation everyone would have walked out and left after they were forced to watch the awkward cult video. Perhaps its the weak script. Perhaps its the inconsistent casting choices. Marshall Green and Michiel Huisman offer good performances but the rest of the cast is just kind of blah. I think the script and inferior direction is to blame here. But there is one redeeming factor in this film.  There is a detail in the end of the film that is quite clever. Clever enough that you could say that this is one of the rare Bad Movies with Good Endings. 

The Limey

Steven Soderbergh, 1999

IMDB

4/5

There’s a reason that film schools study The Limey. Its taking a simple premise and building a sophisticated visual construct around that premise. Something that amateur filmmakers wouldn’t be capable of doing. But someone like Soderbergh can. Soderbergh is one of the more prolific directors working, maybe the most. And I will admit right off the bat, I consider him to be a bit overrated. I am not a fan of all of Soderbergh’s films. While everyone raves about Out of Sight, I am not one of those people. I didn’t care for it. I thought Contagion was dull. I thought Gina Carrano’s distractingly bad acting killed Haywire, which felt too much like Out of Sight for me at times. In fact, in memory the two movies blend together for me in my mind. Girlfriend Experience felt empty and forgettable. And the Ocean’s sequels just lacked that same allurement that the first one had. But then there’s the original Ocean’s Eleven. One of the best remakes ever made. I saw it three times in the theater back in 2001. Side Effects was a really well crafted film, was really able to display some of Channing Tatum’s acting chops while giving Rooney Mara another avenue to display her natural abilities. Behind the Candelabra was an HBO release but that should have had a wide theatrical release. It’s unforgettable. That’s the thing with Soderbergh. You can rattle off a few of the films of his that you really care for and any director would kill to have those films in their filmography. He’s not out there to please everybody with every film. He takes risks and jumps around to vastly different material and that’s admirable.

You can really just boil down the plot of The Limey to a father wanting some closure for his daughter’s death. And Soderbergh is able to build this captivating, tense stylistic film around that premise. Precise editing, great performances, a hypnotic score with haunting piano, this sort of yellowish haze that seems to pour over the screen. It has remarks about social hierarchy and the whole wealthy class on the mountaintop. The complicated nature of a father and daughter relationship. There's even a subtle indictments of Hollywood and celebrity culture. In a sense the Limey is what Pierre Morel’s Taken would be in the hands of an auteur rather than an action director.

Tangerine

Sean Baker, 2015

IMDB

3/5

Somewhere between the grittiness of Larry Clark's 1995 Kids and the unrestrained three-trans-female comedy To Wong Foo Thanks for Everything lies Tangerine - a micro-budget indie picture, produced by the always ambitious Duplass brothers, shot on 3 iPhone 5’s. Visually, it’s a luminous piece that has you immediately forgetting that it was created on something that’s in your own pocket. But it’s a character unraveling piece combined with a revenge drama, all taking place over the course of a single day. Sin-Dee (played by scene-stealer Kiki Rodriguez), is fresh out of jail and eager to unleash her fury on pimp Chester after discovering he had been sleeping with someone else while she was locked up. Aided by companion Alexandra, she promises her “no drama” and goes on to give her nothing but drama as she scours the back-alleys and decaying streets of Los Angeles looking for the guy. You get a sense that nothing very violent will happen when Sin-Dee reunites with Chester, that it’s more about the journey and not the destination.

It’s really a film about the lost souls of L.A. Most of the characters depicted are misfits just trying to find their place in the world. Some of them are not even looking for much either, maybe just some stability and a roof over their head. Sin-Dee, clearly the most short-tempered, is looking for security in a life filled with nothing but turbulence. Alexandra aspires to be on the stage with genuinely engaged faces watching from the crowd. Armenian Taxi Driver Razmik is stuck in a marriage that he is not interested in and looks elsewhere. But because of their jumbled place in society, they end up continuing to live their lonely lives that involve them roaming through the dirty streets. They are people that want to be acknowledged. Acknowledged by someone more than a random traveler willing to throw them a few dollars.

As mentioned before, Rodriguez is the stand-out performance of the movie. But there is much to remember about this film that can be accused of being aimless but is undeniably honest. It’s a well-crafted film that balances comedy with sadness. Focusing on some interesting people that have some real struggles in the world. Where having a dollar for the bus and having another dollar for a donut is a good day. The fact that it was all done on such readily available equipment just shows that anyone can make a film, and hopefully Tangerine inspires a generation of young filmmakers to do just that.

Maps To The Stars

David Cronenberg, 2015

IMDB

4/5

Cronenberg is a man not afraid to go to dark places. With Maps he also shows he's a man not afraid to go to dark places and also not afraid to ruffle some feathers. Maps is an indictment on Hollywood and the celebrity culture that surrounds it. He does this all through a cast of rather dreadful characters. Sociopathic past-her-prime actress Havana Segrand (perfectly cast Julianne Moore in her boldest role since Boogie Nights). Mentally-ill assistant with a shady past Agatha Weiss (Mia Wasikowska). Charlatan health guru Dr. Weiss (John Cusack). Justin Bieber-esque spoiled rich actor kid Benjie Weiss (Evan Bird). Self medicating ghost in the house Christina Weiss (Olivia Williams). Nobody is really spared in the film. They are all figures that have their own ulterior motives, own selfish needs. There is nobody present that has much purity. And yet, with all of the darkness that is emanating through the story, its a completely seductive film. Maybe it's for the pure theater of it all. Maybe it's that you want to see certain people get what's coming to them. Maybe it's because you really want to see how far they will take it. What their personal limits really are. You want to see how low people really can go. How much of their own soul they are willing to sell for a piece of temporary success. Maps makes Los Angeles look like it's a city that belongs on another planet. Because the people in this story aren't really human. They are cold effigies. They are the hollow remnants of creatures that used to be human, but over time lost their souls. Can the L.A. culture really do this to you? Cronenberg would certainly have you believing so.

Code Black

Ryan McGarry, 2014

IMDB

3/5

One of the doctors interviewed in this graphic documentary makes a very important statement. He said that “most people see us on the worst day of their lives”. Most trips to the hospital are not joyous occasions. And on top of that, most people realize that even in those times of emergency, there is going to be a long wait in the Emergency Room. Unfortunately at the L.A. County Hospital, it’s no different. Desperate, suffering and often impoverished, these people sometimes wait up to 18 hours to see a doctor.

The doctors who work in the unit are undoubtedly doing god’s work. They describe the traumatic events in their youth that led them to want to help the sick. They were drawn to the level of intimacy in the County Hospital’s C-Booth. The C-Booth itself looks like a complete clusterfuck. In one memorable scene in the film we witness a gunshot victim in the hands of many medical hands in C-Booth. The crowd of people surrounding him and cutting him open is almost something out of The Walking Dead, the only difference being that these people are trying to keep the poor man alive. We witness many more of these tense moments, where life and death is in the hands of the medical staff that are working in tandem to try and save the person.

A large part of the film is the medical staff venting about their frustrations with the evolution of their hospital. They are nostalgic for the days that they were shoulder to shoulder in C-Booth in the old building. But because of earthquake building standards, they were forced to vacate the old building and move into a modern one. The modern hospital, while aesthetically pleasing, is bigger and creates more distance between the doctor’s and the patients. There is also some figurative distance in the sense that the doctors are now flooded with paperwork. Because of the bureaucratic hurdles they have to cross to actually treat a patient, they lose a lot of the adrenaline and drive that they once had. There is also some macro-political venting about social classes and government funding of county hospitals like the one depicted. Many of the patients do not have health coverage for a variety of reasons. But the doctor’s do not judge anyone who comes through their door, and they express their wish for everyone to feel the same way. The indictment on the state of healthcare in our country does get a bit wearing, sometimes it feels like some of the time spent on the grumbling would have been better spent on the micro-level inside the hospital. The strength of the film is certainly in the machine elements of the staff and working as a team, the day in and day out grind. The weak point is definitely focusing too much on the political grievances. The truth is, the bureaucratic bottlenecking is present in so many aspects of our lives now. One of the more unfortunate parts of our sue-happy and over-litigated society.

It’s a sobering look inside a hospital, a part of the world that many of us wish we do not have to visit. But it’s inspiring and encouraging that we have people like the doctor’s in the film that want nothing more than to help those in need. It's important to remember that these places are part of life. There are ebbs and flows to everything in life. One day we are healthy, the next day it may be the complete opposite where an endless amount of things could happen that are completely out of our control. The idea of an objective place that exists, a place that doesn't judge us based on our economic status, is comforting. Some people may accuse that idea of being over-idealistic and naive, but they are the same creatures breathing in the same air and pumping the same blood. If you walk away from this film feeling even a little more compassionate, they have succeeded with their mission. 

Like Crazy

Drake Doremus, 2011

GoWatchIt

2/5

Complications involving a revoked student visa separates couple Jacob (Anton Yelchin) and Anna (Felicity Jones), leaving Anna stuck in England and Jacob in Los Angeles.

Like Crazy works with some real romantic elements, largely due to Felicity Jones' layered performance. She is not only easy on the eyes she is loaded with on-screen charisma. You get a sense of her thought process, her intentions, her struggles. But there seems to be an overt miscast on the part of Yelchin with the Jacob character. His character largely falls flat and therefore affects the overall weight of their relationship dynamic. You can't help but wonder how the film would have played out if they had someone more able, like a Miles Teller or an Ansel Elgort in the role. Somehow these two women are pining over a guy who really doesn't bring a lot to the relationship other than carpentry skills and a love for Paul Simon records. When Anna spots him for the first time and shows interest in him, she shows vulnerability and honesty by showing him her writing. Not once does he go on any kind of tangent that brings you into his head. Instead he's the guy always looking at his phone, you know the guy that you have had in social situations who sits at one end of the table looking down all night while all of your friends are having a good time engaged in lively conversation. On the subject of the phone, there is a glaring lack of internet in the film that seems more convenient to the overall story than it does feel realistic. Anna is forced to return to her native UK because of the visa issue. But it seems like it only takes a short period of time before she is right back into the flow of everyday life without Jacob present. Yes, there is a time difference between Los Angeles and London. But it's 8 hours. So, you call in the morning on your way to work and she's on her way home. Or, you call at 11PM and it's 7AM on the other side. Or you use Facebook like everybody else is doing in 2011. This is getting nit-picky, but it just feels like they are two people that possess smartphones but have a total inability to communicate with each other without the one calling drunk late at night while the other person is in a deep sleep. To be fair, there are certainly some good shots in this movie. When they spend the summer together and there's the flash montage of them laying in bed together. The balcony on Catalina Island. There's just not enough meat on the bones of the love story, and the miscasting and poor editing outweigh the rather good cinematography and score.

Nightcrawler

Dan Gilroy, 2014

Can I Stream it?

3/5

Night owl Louis Bloom (Jake Gyllenhaal) struggles to find any form of employment until he is excited to discover an underworld group who films newsworthy events and sells the footage to the local television outlets.

Nightcrawler is a menacing nocturnal thriller, with Jake Gyllenhaal channeling a manic energy thats sort of a blend of Travis Bickle and Patrick Bateman with the inappropriate persistence of a TMZ reporter with his Louis Bloom character. But to be fair, Gyllenhaal makes Louis his own and really gives him his own place in the world of deranged movie characters. From the get go, Louis is a difficult character to get behind. He scrapes by, stealing scrap copper and trying to flip it in yards under strict and personally disciplined negotiation. His social cues are a bit unpolished to say the least. Bags under his eyes, with almost an Uncle Fester like purpleness to them. He's a man still trying to find his place in the world. And his world isn't in the daytime. His world is the night-fallen Los Angeles, when all of the shady people come out to play. When he encounters a scene of an accident and sees that there is actually a job where people capture those critical moments for a quick buck, he's hooked on the spot. This form of employment suits Louis quite well, because he is undoubtedly a sociopath. He doesn't hesitate to get right in there with a camera, regardless of the pain or the seriousness of the situation. He is numb to the levity of the situation. His cold shell gets peeled away layer by layer over the course of the film, giving you the impression that you will eventually be exposed to some kind of warmth by Louis. But no, the layers only expose more apathy. Louis is callous, calculating, self serving. He looks upon these crime scenes with open eyes, and nothing behind those chilled eyes feels concerned or empathetic. Perhaps that's one of the most conflicting parts of the story. Sort of difficult to become genuinely concerned about a character like Louis. But much like Taxi Driver, the story isn't really about you getting behind Louis. You sit back and watch in awe. Nightcrawler somehow finds a new way to look at Los Angeles. Gyllenhaal delivers possibly the best performance of his career. He's really showing that he's working on himself as actor, trying to evolve. He's come a long way from Bubble Boy. Nightcrawler is a meditation on our culture of rubber-necking and giving priority to the horrific train-wreck-like events on our TV screens . But it also explores morality through the eyes of a maniac.

Heat

Michael Mann, 1995

Can I Stream It?

4/5

A group of elusive professional robbers have met their match when there is a unexpected slip-up on a job and they find themselves suddenly in the sights of hot-headed homicide detective Lt. Vincent Hanna (Al Pacino).

Michael Mann's action thriller pits DeNiro vs. Pacino (one of three films that the two co-starred in together) to satisfy any movie-lovers dream. Set in the backdrop of the concrete jungle of 1990's Los Angeles, much of the film consists of night shots littered with thousands of squared lit windows as one of the many police helicopters present in the city drift through the sky. When present in the day hours, you are probably looking at a contemporary structure that seems to be holding on to the side of a southern California cliff. If you aren't there, you're in a bank or close to money which at that point you are probably muffling your ears from the sounds of automatic rifle fire. Much of the film is the robbing crew on the move, with Vincent's men hot on their tail. The best of the best. Not many bank robbers are pulling architectural plans before a job, and not many detectives are meeting criminals at a club at 2AM for a ambiguous tip that may or may not even pay off. Dedication on all fronts. It's that cat and mouse concept that keeps the film compelling, although there are so many layers to this great picture to follow. Heat is home to one of the great bank robbery scenes of all time, and if you haven't seen this film you've probably heard about it. It's a lengthly action drama that's not without some over-dramatization, some over-acting by the wavering Pacino (although he provides some of the most memorable quotes on film that are forever in your brain), and some questionable plot-holes here and there. But you're willing to let the imperfections go. Even if you've seen this film a few times and you revisit it years later, you are bound to find something new.

Chef

Jon Favreau, 2014

Can I Stream it?

3/5

Celebrity Chef Carl Casper (Jon Favreau) has become jaded with the stale menu on his restaurant's menu. When restaurant owner Riva (Dustin Hoffman) refuses to let him change things up, he decides to leave and attempt to pursue his own interests which lead him to starting up a Cuban Food truck.

Favreau writes, directs and stars in this film which is a story of a guy taking a risk in a new business blended with some sentimental family elements. Carl is a very proud Chef who has grown insecure with his abilities, especially after getting ripped apart by online blogger Ramsey Michel (Oliver Platt). His vulnerability breaks him, bringing him to his rock bottom after an explosive tirade that inevitably goes viral on social media. But Carl isn't a one-dimensional hot-head; there are many layers to him. He's still licking his wounds from the divorce of his beautiful (and out of his league) Cuban wife Inez (Sophia Vergara). He is having trouble bonding with his son Percy (Emjay Anthony), who is also hurt by the separation. He is basically broke, or close to it, living in a run-down apartment that is probably worth less than the high-end cooking equipment that he uses on a regular basis.

With these elements in play, there are a lot of directions the film could go in where it could fall apart. But it doesn't, and credit is due to Favreau for holding it together. With compelling performances, good direction and snappy editing, he manages to create a heartwarming piece that keeps you rooting for Carl to become a beloved culinary all-star once again. The film examines social media's impact on American culture through the blogosphere, at times using visual elements like pretty tweets flying across the screen (similar to the texting effects used in House of Cards). Not to say there aren't a few faults. When Carl storms out of his restaurant after Riva tells him he needs to cook whats on the menu and nothing else, he returns to his apartment where he goes off on a cooking spree. He puts together a lavish array of seemingly delicious and artful items. He cooks his heart out. You think: okay, he's going to tell that blogger to get his ass down to his apartment and force feed him. But he doesn't, and he appears to only cook the meal for himself. Of course if Ramsey came to the apartment and ate up, he would likely be put Carl in high regard again and movie over... but it was a weird how it played out. Favreau probably wanted the audience to really get on board with Carl's abilities to cook great food, but they were pretty evident already. Like, we knew that after the first scene. Or when he spent all of that time perfecting the grilled cheese sandwich for Percy. Later in the film Martin (played by perfectly-cast John Leguizamo) is pushed into taking a photo of Carl and a South Beach bike-cop. Martin shows you that he is the only person in America that has never used a touch-screen phone before, and is puzzled as to how to snap the picture. Those things are easy to let go, though. The good easily outweighs the bad. Favreau's culinary piece is charming, original, enjoyable. It seems like it was probably a fun film to make. Everyone must have left the set everyday with a full belly.

Sunset Strip

Hans Fjellestad, 2012

Can I Stream It?

2/5

Sunset Strip can be credited with being a rather full story. It has a beginning, middle and an end. And there are a plethora of faces to attempt to recount their experiences (Johnny Depp, Sharon Osbourne, Keanu Reeves, Sharon Stone, Mickey Rourke to name a few). The beginning is clearly the strip in its incarnation. Originally poinsettia farmland owned by a single landowner, it slowly became urbanized and ultimately became an entertainment destination due mostly to it's proximity to Hollywood. The Vegas Strip before there really was Las Vegas. An exclusive hot spot that everyone wanted to get in on. Sammy Davis Jr. Elizabeth Taylor. James Dean. And the popularity grew. The culture evolved, for better or for worse. The middle is the Strip in its gritty heyday. Sex, drugs and rock and roll. Very little interference by the law. A lot of pivotal moments. Jim Morrison at the Whiskey a Go Go. Sam Kinison screaming into the microphone at the Comedy Store. Richard Pryor performing his legendary set. And just like any party, it must come to an end at some point. The end is basically closer to the present-day. The Sunset Strip of Los Angeles has turned into a homogenized, corporate version of its former self. The lines of cocaine have morphed into heavily-caffeinated energy drinks, with their very advertisements plastered all over the walls in an effort to cross-promote. The busy streets have turned into promenades to increase the volume of foot traffic. Instead of a historical site it's basically become a novelty display.

The problem with the film is while it treats you to beautiful historical footage early on in the film, it becomes rather aimless and self-indulgent at the end. The camera sits down with a group of mob types and it feels wearisome. It shows some confusing footage of Paris Hilton in a police cruiser. Kelly Osbourne performing with the Pussycat Dolls. Instead of continuing on in some kind of rich historical context, it ends up just playing some live footage of Jane's Addiction and some other bands performing at the Roxy. And perhaps that's whats sad about the Sunset Strip. The inevitability of it all. The old die out and the young are born. Led Zeppelin is no longer renting the entire floor of the Chateau Marmot, because they haven't even performed together in years. You won't find Ozzy at any of the bars. In fact, his own children have undergone their own rites of passage on the Strip and look back on it with nostalgia. What's left are the ghosts of the past. It's turned into a rather unforgiving shell of it's former self. New thrills are now packaged. There are no surprise acts. Just contracted residencies. It's just too bad that Fjellestad wasn't able to maintain the momentum in the final third of the film. This film could learn a thing or two from more entertaining Sunset-Strip based documentary The Mayor of the Sunset Strip. 

End of Watch

David Ayer, 2012


4/5

          Brian Taylor (Jake Gyllenhaal) and Mike Zavala (Michael Pena) are partners for the LAPD and have to cover the rough terrain of South Central Los Angeles. Young, confident and headstrong - they find that they can quickly get buried in a mess that becomes hard to dig themselves out of.
          The first feature that is evident in the film are the noticeable similarities to Training Day. The comparisons are appropriate not only because of the setting and subject matter, but also because Ayer produced Training Day back in 2001. Ayer must love his bullets, according to IMDB he wrote a script for a remake of The Wild Bunch. Similar to Training Day, you are a witness to the gang violence and unpredictable nature of the L.A. streets. But while the setting is similar, the methods used in making the film are much different. There is a found-footage feel to End of Watch that really augments the adrenaline-fueled situations. Through clever placement of handheld cameras, and a lot of it held by the actors themselves, you really feel like you're in the middle of the action. The film is not entirely found-footage from handhelds. Studio cameras supplement the erratic camera work with stunning urban landscapes at sunset. Gyllenhaal delivers the best performance seen from him in years, perhaps since Donnie Darko. Credit is due to all actors in the film, as everyone feels very authentic. Michael Pena is very effective as Gyllenhaal's partner. The witty in-car dialogue between the two never gets stale and only helps to develop the audiences' investment in their alliance. They are constantly pulling pranks on each other, and their fellow officers. One of the officers and constant recipient of their high jinks, Van Hauser (David Harbour), serves as the elder, jaded cop who has become and numb to the criminal elements and in-house betrayal over time. His Xanax-fueled demeanor serves as a good contrast to the young partners, who still have a fire in their belly when hitting the litter-covered streets on a daily basis. The comradery between the officers feels genuine, as does the affection for their loved ones. The scene with Brian and Janet (Anna Kendrick) singing along to Cam'Ron's "Hey Ma" in the car really hit the mark in displaying the intimate moments between a young couple falling in love.
          There are so many impressive elements to the film from perfect casting, keen writing, clever editing, to adept use of sound. I had a feeling within the last few moments of the film that the ending was going to disappoint, and then it took another surprising turn and in the end became very satisfying. History has been kind to Training Day and I believe it will be even kinder to End of Watch.