WATCH THE TRAILER HERE
First, the Recap:
Tarnished souls in frantic states, yearning to find what they feel are the only ways out of burdensome circumstances, all in order to protect the ones they treasure. When push comes to shove and the cards are down, how far would you go, what actions would you justify, to get what’s owed and to see life improve? It becomes the question weighing on Henry Johns (Tory Kittles), just released from prison and hoping for a fresh start plus a direction to improve quality of existence for himself, his wayward mother Jennifer (Vanessa Bell Calloway), and little brother Ethan (Myles Truitt), and two veteran cops, Brett Ridgeman (Mel Gibson) and Anthony Lurasetti (Vince Vaughn), who are suspended without pay after being caught utilizing excessive force during a bust.
Ridgeman, now in especially dire need of financial gain for his daughter Sara (Jordyn Ashley Olson) and infirmed wife Melanie (Laurie Holden), utilizes a shady contact named Friedrich (Udo Kier) to learn about an local heroin dealer, Lorentz Vogelmann (Thomas Kretschmann), who’s plotting a heist which Ridgeman desires to intercept. Managing to convince Lurasetti to go on the deal, despite his partner’s serious reluctance, Ridgeman enacts the plan, both men never realizing the impact their corrupt choice will have on so many other’s lives, including Henry and his partner in crime Biscuit (Michael Jai White), Anthony’s girlfriend Denise (Tattiawna Jones), a separation anxiety-laden banker Kelly (Jennifer Carpenter) and her co-worker Cheryl (Justine Warrington). Soon, it becomes eerily uncertain whether any of them will come out alive.
Next, my Mind:
Certainly the absolute epitome of what indie cinema at any level is about, aka: character and story-driven execution, this feature film effort from writer/director/composer S. Craig Zahler carries itself with a highly slow-burn pacing (the film clocking in at quite a lengthy two hours and forty-one minutes) that delivers a brutally unflinching, gritty, dark punch in the gut, heart, soul, and mind exposé highlighting the terrible consequences involved with poor choices, tattered morals, and just a worn out sense of purpose found when years of hard work hasn’t paid out the dividends earned and/or deserved. What strikes you though, even in the midst of such heavy illustrations of societal ills and devious decisions, is that underneath the surface lie thematic elements addressing the potency of familial commitment, more specifically a father’s love and guardianship of the well-being of his kids, as well as the ultimate aim to learn from one’s misdeeds and make restitution through providing a better road to traverse, all of which this critic felt were actually laid out for the viewer via multiple characters like Henry, Brett, and even Kelly to a certain extent.
Now, the means through which two of these three choose to attain said paths aren’t recommended, the subsequent ramifications of the events that transpire being beyond harmful, yet admittedly, the film’s somewhat surprising finale leaves you to actually pause and ponder how everything has just wrapped up, having presented expected outcomes, shocking ends, and dare we say hopeful futures for those left standing in the aftermath of the chaos. Visually the film holds the story’s intensely burning tone precisely and smoothly, embracing both the light of day and darkness of night with equal quality and clarity. Content-wise, a couple of sequences of fairly blatant nudity, both sexual and decidedly non-sexual, were not personal points of enjoyment or preference for this critic, the harsh language was not nearly as prevalent as one might expect by a long shot, and the in-your-face violence wasn’t even as overwhelmingly graphic as I anticipated, aside from one particular set of instances that will be potentially nauseating to some if you’re not a hardened gore fan from watching too many bloodbath-centric horror films. What is truly ominous to contemplate is that the film’s overall, unapologetically edgy demeanor is a sad reflection of the current state of this world and some of the injustices present when it comes to how we see our hard work unappreciated while others of less savory means attain “greatness” and affluency. It’s a twisted state of affairs that needs to be changed, but how it gets adjusted should be pursued by far less violent, desperate means, unlike here.
While not remotely close to one of Gibson’s finest performances, there’s still no denying the fact the man brings a signature presence to the big screen in SOME form each time he appears, and this isn’t an exception to that, at least to a fair degree, via his role as Ridgeman, a long-standing detective in the fictional American city of Bulwark. Having served with distinction, his current days are less than ideal, never having seen his efforts genuinely rewarded through promotion, and therefore remaining on the streets with a much younger partner. Caught on video using more force than needed, suspension drives Ridgeman over the edge in wanting to both get his just due and still provide for his daughter and ex-cop wife. Diving headfirst into the criminal underworld he’s always fought so hard against, the quest to gain what he seeks drags everyone he knows through the gloomy ringer, with results that sadly befit said option chosen. Throughout, Gibson lends that growling voice, sporadic dry humor, and understated bravado to the character, just not quite to the totally engaging level he used to.
Witnessing Vaughn in such a serious role was, for this critic, definitively outside the norm, and for what it was, the performance was acceptable as Ridgeman’s newest partner Lurasetti, a driven cop who has attained his own standards of excellence over the lesser years on the force thanks to being teamed with Ridgeman. Satisfied with being where he’s at and looking fondly towards a newly developing future with his girlfriend Denise, Lurasetti’s world likewise gets upended upon the suspension given out by the duo’s Lt. Chief once the video of their bust gets out. Also finding himself in a place of financial arrears, his notions about how to get out from under it don’t mesh with the plan Ridgeman hatches, but ends up choosing to go with it, with the culmination of that being emphatically dangerous and possibly fatal. Vaughn has that consistent swagger he tends to show through any character that he plays, but this was the most straight-forward I’d personally seen him do, and he accomplishes it with enough relative believability to make a solid show of it in such a slow-burn drama like this.
Kittles delivers one of the better total performances as Henry, a now ex-con who simply wishes to venture ahead and change his stars for the betterment of himself along with his mother and crippled little brother. There might have been an initial thought Henry would achieve the straight and narrow, but instead he gets immersed in the heist scheme put together by Lorentz and crew that seems to be what could end up his final undoing. Yet, the character’s destiny and fate, while tied to the incidents that unravel throughout the caper, take an unforeseen twist that, by the end, makes one reassess the concept of crime not paying. Primary supporting turns are present from Holden as Ridgeman’s hobbled wife Melanie who only wants to get out of the crime-infested neighborhood they reside in, at minimum for the sake of the couple’s daughter, played in fine form by Olson, Jones as Lurasetti’s girlfriend Denise who just wants her beau safe and sound, Kier as Ridgeman’s back alley contact to the underworld Friedrich, Kretschmann as the heist leader Vogelmann who has no true moral compass and a cold, calculating manner, White as Henry’s friend and criminal ally Biscuit who gets drawn into the heist as a driver, Carpenter as a new mother/banker Kelly who has serious issues getting back to work in the wake of her newborn she cannot be away from, and Warrington as Kelly’s co-worker Cheryl who ends up a more than unwilling partaker in the heist, and Calloway and Truitt as Henry’s mother and brother, the center’s of his world and focus of becoming “better”.
Additional appearances are aplenty, made by Don Johnson as Ridgeman and Lurasetti’s commander Lt. Chief Calvert, Fred Melamed as bank manager Mr. Edmington, Primo Allon and Matthew MacCaull as members of the heist crew Black Gloves and Gray Gloves, Noel G as a dealer named Vasquez, and Liannet Borrego as Vasquez’ girlfriend Rosalinda, and Vivian Ng as Henry’s quick hook-up Lana. In total, with its indisputably, unshakably, unwaveringly somber tone that hides just those few brief hints of hope underneath the inky black veneer, “Dragged Through Concrete” stands as an example of character-centric, story-based filmmaking through and through, and while its pacing, tad-too-lengthy runtime, and not-necessarily-stellar acting turns from its primary stars may not be for everyone, it is without a doubt an independent project at its core, which is still something to be admired and appreciated for what it is.
As always, this is all for your consideration and comment. Until next time, thank you for reading!
