The Tax Collector - Film Review

When I first started doing reviews, I had hoped to do more than a few movie reviews. The whole coronavirus pandemic has kind of screwed the pooch on that for a while, however some of the movies Hollywood has been holding out on have started to trickle in. It'd been a while since I'd seen a new crime thriller so my ears perked up when I heard about this one, however my gut plummeted into my stomach when I heard the director was David Ayer. Ayer might've blown my mind with the likes of Training Day and U-571 (he wrote the screenplay for that one), but I'll never forgive him for some of his more recent entries like Suicide Squad. I'd rather watch Dungeons & Dragons twice in Mandarin, than see Suicide Squad again (although, now I'm imagining a Chinese dub of Jeremy Irons and it's sounding pretty groovy). 

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Where You Can Find It: I saw this one on Amazon Prime however it is available on other rental/streaming services like the iTunes Store and Google Play.

General Information 
The Tax Collector is a crime drama movie written and directed by David Ayer. It was initially released on 30 July 2020 in a very limited theatrical run due to the Novel Coronavirus Pandemic, however it was then shortly followed by a 7 August 2020 digital release. Prior to its release, there was a good deal of teeth grinding over Shia LaBeouf's casting as a Caucasian character in a predominantly Latino-centric film. I guess LaBeouf tried to show the world he was really serious about his role in the film by having most of his chest tattooed. Since its release, the film has not been received very well, with it holding an abysmal 22 out of 100 on Metacritic as of 10 August 2020. I definitely don't think this movie is amazing by any means, but I find myself scratching my head over such a painful rating as I don't think it's entirely warranted (feel free to let me know if you agree/disagree in the comments!).

The Story
David Cuevas (played by Bobby Soto) is a protection money collector for a crime kingpin, known as "the Wizard," in South-Central Los Angeles, CA. He collects thirty percent of every gang-related business in his territory with Creeper (appropriately played by Shia LaBeouf) acting as his muscle/driver. Things quickly go south when an old enemy of the Wizard shows up, called Conejo (Jose Conejo Martin), who starts to violently take over the Wizard's rackets. David's on the front lines of this turf war and ends up having to take matters into his own hands when Conejo brings the fight to him.

Right away, this movie does not help itself with its introduction. I'm not going to go into deep spoilers here (as always, see the Spoiler Comments Section), but there were numerous tropes here that made me feel like David Ayer was prizing style over substance while also simultaneously ripping off other better films. Like Suicide Squad, this movie's story seemingly takes place in a vacuum where the rest of the world and civilization is not taken into consideration. Early on, David gives this incredibly lengthy and strange monologue to a new "client" about how big and bad his outfit is and how he should be feared. As soon as things start to go bad for David though, I started to wonder just how big and bad his outfit was because they quickly fall to pieces when they have to deal with Conejo. It's like the Wizard's gang is either miniscule (in which case, I'm amazed they haven't been all been murdered already) or completely unorganized (in which case, I'm amazed they haven't all been arrested already). This may seem like a minor nitpick, but it's like a cancer that compounds on itself throughout the rest of the film.

This vacuum feel killed the immersion of this film, and the more I think about it, the more annoyed I get over it. The police are barely in this movie, except when the plot specifically demands it. Meanwhile, other gangs (one of which is the Bloods) are incredibly reasonable and friendly with David despite the fact that he eats into thirty percent of their income. The only character that I genuinely liked was Conejo as he actually behaved like how I would expect some Mexican cartel badass to act (for the most part at least).

Special Effects/Atmosphere
There was a cleanliness to this film that sort of kept taking me out of the movie. For a movie about grimy drug dealers and sicarios, I would say that only Conejo and Creeper matched the atmosphere the movie was shooting for. There are some excellent shots of South-Central Los Angeles, which I will certainly give credit where it's due, however all of the immersion-breaking things mentioned in the Story Section kill most of this movie's atmosphere.

I thought the violence was a tad over the top, however there was some nice gritty bits to it that were pretty memorable. A guy gets half of his face ground off during an interrogation in a moving van when his face is pressed into the asphalt while the vehicle is still rolling. All the gangsters looked pretty intimidating too, with the exception of Conejo's sicaria-girlfriend who nearly jumped the shark at times.

The Acting
Overall, I think the actors did the best they could with what they had. I haven't seen Bobby Soto in anything besides Narcos: Mexico, but I found him incredibly forgettable. Shia LaBeouf puts everything he has into the scenes he's in, and I'd even say that this is the best I've ever seen him, but that doesn't mean that it's necessarily good. He's got the crazy eye-twitch thing down, but he's one of those loyal henchman in gangster movies that seemingly has no life beyond killing for his boss. Of all the actors and actresses in this movie, George Lopez as David's crime-boss second-in-command is probably the best. For a comedian, Lopez brought an aura of intimidation with just his presence alone, and I really liked that. 

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George Lopez, you need to talk to Denis Villeneuve 

The Best of the Best: Seeing George Lopez drop every vulgar word he's been holding in because ABC wouldn't let him swear on his sitcom show.

The Worst of the Worst: David is racing a clock as he's trying to dig up a barrel of money he hid after one of his many criminal capers. Despite being in an incredible hurry with lives on the line, he randomly decides to stop and eat a burrito before continuing. I'm not making this up...

Calhooey Score: 4/10 - Below Average

Would I Recommend?

I don't think this movie is awful, but it's certainly not good. It commits possibly the worst sin a film can commit: It's entirely forgettable. It's not bad enough to laugh at, but not good enough to recommend on any level. If you want a good LA crime movie, watch Heat, Collateral, or David Ayer's own Training Day. I hope Shia LaBeouf likes his new tattoo... 

-------------------------------------------------Spoiler Comments-----------------------------------------------------

• I respectfully disagree that David's wife, Alexis, is so innocent and pure as the movie tries to tell me she is. She counts the drug money David collects and apparently knows quite a bit about the Wizard's operations. She may not be a murderer or drug dealer, but she definitely ain't clean.
• Speaking of which, David walking right past her body to wash his face in the bathroom was pretty hilarious. It's a nearly all-white room and he seemingly misses the super-bloody corpse of the person he came in there to look for.
• I'd really like to ask Jimmy Smits what David is the king of, since he apparently has no crime network and has to bury his wife. 
• The Bloods willingly offering their lives for David's cause (for free) was pretty nice of them. They seem like good folks.

----------------------------------------------------References--------------------------------------------------

(1) The Movie Spoiler. (2020). The Tax Collector film cover image. Retrieved from: https://themoviespoiler.com/movies/the-tax-collector/. 

(2) The Tax Collector. (2020). Uncle Louis photo. Google Play. Retrieved from: https://play.google.com/store/movies/details/The_Tax_Collector?id=CfYgqxXJBlw.P.