No one does modern exploitation quite like S. Craig Zahler, who has carved quite a niche for himself for making nasty, morally dubious genre films that move in a distinctly relaxed groove. I loved what he did with his previous films, Bone Tomahawk and Brawl In Cell Block 99, both of which are certainly worth checking out if what I described sounds up your alley. Zahler has gained a reputation for the questionable, right wing subtext (and it’s worth noting that I am using the word “subtext” very generously here) that can be found in his work, and the way his attitudes often manifest in really uncomfortable ways. I touched on it when I reviewed Puppet Master: The Littlest Reich, which he didn’t direct, but did write. I don’t need every piece of entertainment I watch to match my personal politics, I understand that depiction doesn’t equal endorsement, and I prefer any artist to stay true to who they are, whatever that entails.
And it doesn’t take long into Zahler’s new film, Dragged Across Concrete, to be reminded that, yeah, we’re going to be dealing with some really despicable people. We meet two crooked cops, Brett Ridgeman (Mel Gibson) and Anthony Lurasetti (Vince Vaughn), who get suspended from the job because of a video of them applying aggressive force onto a suspect during a drug bust is released. In hoping to provide for their loved ones, they eventually decide to use some information they recently received to rob a group of bank robbers. Meanwhile, we also follow Henry Johns (Tory Kittles), who is released from prison only to find his home life a mess, and in desperate need of help. So, to make ends meet, he reluctantly agrees to do a job with his friend, Biscuit (Michael Jai White).
Dragged Across Concrete is very much in the vein of classic hardboiled crime stories, which fits perfectly with Zahler’s long, indulgent, novelistic impulses. Like his previous efforts, this is a total slow burn. What I loved in particular was how most of the film is simply guys sitting in cars talking to each other. It’s a film made up almost completely of stakeouts and following cars, hell, even the big shootout in the climax is full of dead space while characters from both sides try to figure out what to do. It’s pacing is much more in line with hangout movies, where the action is often minimal, and you simply end up spending most of the time just getting to know these characters. It just so happens that many of the characters and misogynistic, racist, and homophobic.
Which leads me to a weird problem that the film has. There’s a sloppiness to the way Zahler writes some of these characters, especially when they go on long, politically charged diatribes. It’s often so blunt and obvious that it feels like Zahler is purposefully trying to provoke the audience, whereas those details were mostly minimal in his previous films. An early scene where Brett and Anthony meet their superior, Lt. Calvert (Don Johnson) is full of lines about how “cell phones are annoying and everywhere,” and how “being labeled a racist now is like being labeled a communist in the 50s,” and so on and so forth. It just makes me imagine Zahler giggling off camera, thinking about all the people who’ll get triggered by the dialogue. There’s another scene where Brett’s wife, Melanie (Laurie Holden), expresses her concerns about her daughter in a predominantly black neighborhood, even going so far as to say, “I didn’t realize I would be racist until we moved into this neighborhood.” It’s not even that it makes me mad, it just feels so laughably over-the-top and reactionary on Zahler’s part, that it becomes hard to take seriously.
Thankfully, some of the more overt and clumsy commentary is rather minimal, it is a very long movie after all. The rest of the dialogue is as sharp and idiosyncratic as I expected, walking a very distinct fine line between understated naturalism and over-written poeticism. Although, Anthony and Brett end up getting most of the banter, and I wish there was more of a balance between them and Henry and Biscuit. The actors are all really good. Gibson plays a racist really well, who’da thunk? Vaughn is solid. I liked the subtle pathos that Kittles brings to his character. And of course, White is always a blast to see. The women in the film don’t get much to do, unfortunately, but do good work with what little they’re given like Holden or Jennifer Carpenter, who shows up late into the film as a bank teller.
Dragged Across Concrete is easily Zahler’s most finely tuned work to date, filmmaking wise. The largely static and carefully blocked shots give a cold, menacing vibe, the violence is appropriately gnarly, the use of sound and music – and lack thereof – is great in adding to the tense atmosphere. There’s a lot of great stuff in here to make some of the sloppy writing more easy to swallow. Obviously, if his work hasn’t done much for you before, this is definitely one to avoid. It’s a rough, tough, and devilishly nihilistic piece of hardboiled filmmaking, and I was riveted from beginning to end. I get a kick out of watching some occasional bad-guys-doing-bad-things ugliness, and no one does it with as much finesse and fearlessness as S. Craig Zahler.