15, 119 mins
Jim (Christian Bale) is a nightmare-plagued Gulf War veteran who leaves his girlfriend in Mexico for Los Angeles to pursue his dream career in the LAPD. When he’s rejected, he ends up cruising the streets of South Central LA with his weak-willed childhood friend (Freddy Rodríguez), much to the annoyance of the latter’s lawyer wife (Eva Longoria), and making bad decisions at every turn about drugs, guns, gangs and women.
This directorial debut by David Ayer echoes his script for Training Day, in which a malleable young policeman falls under the bad influence of his corrupt partner in an LA of dangerous neighbourhoods and dodgy cops, but is far angrier. The film channels the spirit of Seventies Scorsese with the volatile friendships of Mean Streets and the ticking time-bomb tension of Taxi Driver as we never quite know when Jim’s ingrained combat instincts are going to push him over the edge.
Bale’s bravura portrayal of Jim’s combustible contradictions — loving boyfriend, cold-eyed killer, pitiful loser and demented psycho — is by turns riveting and alienating in its intensity. As Mike, Jim’s last hope of redemption, Rodriquez provides a far less showy but essential counterpoint as the pair find themselves in increasingly precarious and violent situations.
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Despite clunkiness in the script when Jim is offered a job with Homeland Security and the talk turns to corporate greed and government subterfuge, the dialogue often crackles. Jim’s meltdown also feels protracted towards the end, but for the most part this is gripping, edgy drama.
IAN JOHNS