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Synopsis

Academy Award® nominee Jake Gyllenhaal and Michael Peña star as young Los Angeles police officers Taylor and Zavala as they patrol south central’s meanest streets, creating a riveting portrait of the city’s most dangerous corners and the cops who risk their lives there every day. –TIFF

Director

Original

David Ayer

David Ayer (born 1968) is an American screenwriter, film producer and film director.

David Ayer was born in Champaign, Illinois in 1968. He grew up in Bloomington, Minnesota and Bethesda, Maryland, where he was kicked out of his house by his parents as a teenager. Ayer then lived with his cousin in Los Angeles, California, where his experiences in South Central Los Angeles became the inspiration for many of his films.
Career

Ayer’s screenplay, Squids, was based on his experiences as a submariner in the United States Navy, experience that he had earlier put into rewrites of the submarine thriller U-571, a fictional account of Americans capturing the Enigma code rather than the British. The furor that surrounded the film’s release led Tony Blair, then British Prime Minister, to claim that it was an “affront to the memories” of those involved and Bill Clinton, US President at the time, to write a letter emphasizing the film’s fictional nature. Ayer has said that U-571… read more

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Evan Schafer

6May13

What struck me from the first frame of "End of Watch" was its inherent realism. At times I almost forgot I was watching a fictional film because of the believable acting, the 'dashboard cam' setups of the cop cars, and yes, the shootouts which put the viewer right into the action. It works *because* it is graphic, whereas other films might not quite reach that pinnacle. It is a story that needs to be told and heard.

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Howard Orr

4May13

Watchable as a straightforward cop buddy movie once you overcome the intial conceit that even the bad guys seem to be happy to film their (mis)deeds, but it is very hamfisted when it tries to tie the exploits of its main characters to larger organised crime. In addition, the villains are very one-dimensional, and make the film hard to take seriously. (But at least there's some Mazzy Star in there!)

Ademption likes this

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Ademption

25Apr13

Entertaining, buddy cop movie. Episodic in a good way. Three problems: 1. The identifiable villains are narratively shoehorned. 2. Ladies = props. 3. The cinéma vérité Blair Witchiness is reinforced and jettisoned throughout the film, depending on the scene, i.e. Gyllenhaal's cop character is making a movie about his job, or not, HE IS, nope, FOR SCHOOL, not really, STOP FILMING CADET, whatever, IT'S REAL LIFE, nah.

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Whyte Nite

9Apr13

A racist white man's fantasy of how Mexican and African American gangs behave.

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Articles

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W184

Notebook's 5th Writers Poll: Fantasy Double Features of 2012

By Daniel Kasman on January 7, 2013

In our annual poll, we pair our favorite new films of 2012 with older films seen in the same year to create fantastic double features.

read article

TIFF 2012 Review: END OF WATCH, a Gritty, Realistic Police Story

By Twitchfilm.com on September 10, 2012
If there’s one filmmaker out there who is clearly and passionately interested in the psychology of modern police officers, it’d have to be screenwriter turned director David Ayer. Although his first release
read on Twitchfilm.com

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Reviews

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No nonsense, well-written, straight-forward, modern cop film

By pivic on December 28, 2012

In stupid fashion, I expected this film to be a straightforward “New Jack City” type of film, where the bad are bad, the cops are good, etc. But I did wrong. I repent. Even when watching the very start…  read review

Forum

Displaying 1 discussion topic.

Wide Relase Films Sept 21 2012

30 posts by 13 people 8 months ago