Looks like found footage escaped the bloody hand of the horror genre. Chronicle successfully used found footage to tell the tale of teen superheroes. Now, even better so, End of Watch uses found footage to bring World’s Wildest Police Videos to the big screen. Writer/Director David Ayer (Swat, Training Day) already knows the cop genre, and uses the found footage effect to create an intimate story of two buddies first, cops second. The honest, real chemistry between officers Brian Taylor (Jake Gyllenhaal) and Mike “Z” Zavala (Michael Pena) and the honest, real world they patrol make End of Watch a great entry into the already crowded buddy cop genre.
In South Central LA, you have to have guts and street smarts to be truly great at your job. Two of the best are officer Taylor and Zavala. They met in training, and have been friends since. Their friendship knows no boundaries: they have frank discussions about their relationships. Z married his first love (Natalie Martinez) and has a child. Brian has just seriously started dating the first smart girl (Anna Kendrick) he has ever met. The two worry about their growing families as their brand becomes omnipresent in the area, which causes them to be targeted by a drug cartel operating out of the area.
The opening sequence is in the found footage arena, and can be a bit disorienting for those who avoid shakycams. After that, the shaky cam serves the story very well, and at times evens out to evoke more chaos that nausea. The more subtle but more effective purpose of using this technique is to draw the story in and feel like you are alongside the cops on their day-to-day activities. It really makes the connection between the two cops feel more natural than with a standard multi-cam. The draw in makes the emotional payoffs pop with much more force than being an omniscient observer: I felt like one of the friends of these two officers.
Demagoging and stereotyping is the easiest thing to do to supporting character when you create two likable, complex leads. Fortunately, End of Watch gives at least slight dimensions to each of the other characters. The two significant others unfortunately cannot match the fully developed stage of their characters; however, they each get a scene to at least provide the characters a personality. The villains are pretty cardboard cutout, however, they all are given redeeming qualities, whether they be logic, respect, or fear. Given surprising depth are the other beat cops. They have some well-developed backstories that can usually be explained in one scene. This realism can also be applied to the settings. I have seen enough TV shows of Los Angeles that I can identify similar types of down-on-their-luck neighborhoods. The history of the area is explained, providing a more contemporary and progressive Los Angeles than previously seen. The violence is bloody, but conceivable; there is no outstanding choreographed fight scene.
End of Watch is elevated because of the performances by Jake Gyllenhaal and Michael Pena. I don’t know how much time these two spent together to prepare for the role, but it was all the time they needed. Their chemistry could make you almost mistake this movie as a comedy at the start: the ribbing feels like it is written by someone who placed a tape recorder in a beat cop car. Michael Pena is solid here, but Jake Gyllenhaal continues to prove himself one of the more capable characters actors of his generation: he does a great job anchoring the emotional heft in all of his scenes. Anna Kendrick plays a more adult version of her energetic characters past, and Natalie Martinez shows nice adept comedic timing. America Ferrara, Frank Grillo, and David Harbour get nice scenes as beat cops. The other notable actor is Everton Lawrence, who plays one of the better informer criminals with limited screen time.
End of Watch should not be confused with the Watch. In fact, the Watch should learn from End of Watch how to develop a great comedic scene. Most importantly, anyone who is dating or married to a cop should consider this movie a warning. End of Watch shows just how much hero cops can live on the edge of a knife. Fortunately, everyday, there are cops like the ones in End of Watch willing to put their lives on the line for everyday people like me.