Being in the height of Oscar movie season, I usually look forward to the next 3 months to be filled with really searing, fascinating stories about the human condition. So I tend to overlook the Gerard Butler/Frank Grillo cop thriller tossed into theatres with little fanfare and even littler Oscar aspirations. But such was my delight watching Joe Carnahan’s latest, trading in freezing Alaska for the comfy confines of a Nevada prison cell. Copshop is a hyper charming tale of deception, dialogue and dramatics that ran me over like Grillo’s bullet ridden Crown Victoria. I was floored at the fun and excitement two dudes in a prison cell with cop between them could generate. Let’s go to prison y’all!
While trying to break up a fight between a wedding party, rookie cop Valerie Young (Alexis Louder) gets sucker punched by Teddy Murretto (Frank Grillo), who almost seems delighted to be in prison. Strange things start happening in the prison when Teddy gets a cell mate in the opposite block (Gerard Butler), who appears drunk but clearly has other motivations. Valerie then has to navigate whatever the hell is going on between these two, while also dealing with a much larger than expected set of visitors to the prison, who appear to be part of whatever beef Teddy and this mysterious man have with each other.
What follows early on is a terrifying 3 hander between Grillo, Butler, and Louder, each trying to one up the other to be at the top of the power pyramid. Carnahan’s script is vicious and clever, a potent combination, with each of the 3 principals dressing each other down in brilliant fashion. At the same time, Butler and Grillo sell everyone on the true terrifying situation Louder has walked into, and how deep and tangled the corruption and terror web goes beyond the jail cells. That fear/tension base gets released with delightful cutting barbs the 3 leads launch at each other, and then quickly builds back up again. While all the “dick” measuring goes on downstairs, there’s also these little subplots going on inside the police department that threaten to upend the power dynamics and launch an all out shootout inside the police station that puts the audience on excited ominous anticipation.
After about an hour, Carnahan starts to deliver on the threats of violence the first half promises. It all starts after he plot dumps what’s really going on, and Toby Huss enters the picture. I’ve seen Huss in stuff before, but the great character actor gets a chance to show just how great he is here, playing an unhinged, terrifying player in the proceedings. Carnahan’s hour of showing us how the jail is laid out helps us keep track of where the action goes inside the police station, and gives us moments of terror, gleeful Tarantino like violence, and straight up calm cool and collected heroism. Like in The Grey, Carnahan finds some of the best character moments when their backs are against the wall, and we see what they’ll do with the little time they have left. Most important, Carnahan eschews traditional cop/prisoner story beats and gives us a more honest, sometimes damn nihilistic ending, because that would be how the characters would act in this situation, making his story land much harder.
Sadly, I think Copshop will get lost in the box office of Marvel Movies and Oscar fare. However, it’s gonna find a home on cable and streaming services for years to come, deservedly so. Movies this good eventually draw word of mouth praise, and hopefully elevate previous relative unknowns like Alexis Louder and Toby Huss into bigger stars. Particularly Louder, who held her own against action vets like Gerard Butler and Frank Grillo. I look forward to her casting in a Marvel movie at some point in the near future.