‘Facing El Chapo’
A ripped-from-the-headlines story, “Facing El Chapo” recalls the real-life capture of the Mexican drug lord Joaquín Guzmán Loera. Directed by Chava Cartas, the film focuses on two Los Mochis police officers: the straightedge Arturo (Alfonso Herrera) and his gruff new partner, Héctor (Noé Hernández), who are plunged into danger when they find and detain El Chapo (Héctor Kotsifakis) and his lieutenant El Cholo (Juan Pablo Cruz García).
Much of “Facing El Chapo” is a game of keep-away, with the film’s tension and action operating on two levels. While the secondary thread involves a bevy of vicious firefights between Mexico’s Navy and El Chapo’s soldiers, the primary thread is psychological. Can Arturo, who has a family, and Héctor, who is a year from retirement, withstand El Chapo’s bribes and threats? Tense moments in a secluded hotel room transform the film into a captivating chamber piece.
In “The Isolate Thief,” Mackenzie Foy plays Ada Horn, a woman who has watched her father, a commander in the Union Army, die of pneumonia at their secluded outpost. Her grief is interrupted when a mysterious traveler (Joe Pantoliano) not only robs her of food and clothing but also buries stolen gold on her property. The fortuitous bounty proves costly when a pack of outlaws led by Fiddler John Good (Sean Bean) arrive in fake Union uniforms in search of the man and the treasure, causing Ada to plan her escape.
A grim, dirty western, John Suits’s film leans into the frontier as a treacherous landscape. Ada thrives on her wits, using emasculating one-liners to dress down the thieves. And Emily (Odeya Rush), whom Ada discovers bruised and beaten nearby, uses her grit to fight the men head-on. Both women defend themselves in a gruesome final shootout that makes the gunfight at the O.K. Corral look like a tea party.
Unlike the grounded scrappiness of “The Isolate Thief,” Potsy Ponciroli’s “Motor City” is high style. Set in 1970s Detroit, it follows John Miller (Alan Ritchson), a hulking autoworker in love with a vulnerable Sophia (Shailene Woodley). Reynolds (Ben Foster), who once dated Sophia, is jealous and breaks up Miller’s relationship with her by framing him for cocaine possession. Ponciroli adds a different rhythm to the simple premise, making it into a near-silent film by leaning on needle drops rather than dialogue.
In the bruising opening scene, when Miller flings a man from a rooftop, David Bowie’s “Cat People (Putting Out Fire)” plays. When Miller is arrested on drug charges, the entirety of Fleetwood Mac’s “The Chain” propels the scene, giving the incident operatic flourishes. Ponciroli also assembles a cast with great, expressive faces — particularly Foster, who swings for the fences in every scene. Throw in a showdown that echoes John Woo’s “Face/Off,” and “Motor City” comes fully alive.
James Hale (Dave Bautista), a Navy commander, and his estranged half brother, Jonny (Jason Momoa), agree on only one thing: They hate their private-detective father. But when he dies in a suspicious hit-and-run, the brothers team up in Hawaii to investigate, pitting them against deadly Yakuza gangsters and a crooked local businessman (Claes Bang).
“The Wrecking Crew,” a tale of brotherly love and hate, earns its name by not shying away from collateral damage. Entire city blocks are decimated under a fog of gunfire exchanged between the Hale siblings and the Yakuza.
While many movies will depict a car chase as two vehicles on a desolate road, this film’s major freeway set piece features a helicopter shooting directly into open traffic. Innocent cars flip and explode into fiery wrecks. The characters don’t just acknowledge the havoc — they revel in it.
With Ric Roman Waugh’s “Shelter,” Jason Statham is keeping the flame alive for undercover killers hidden in the most mundane jobs. Statham plays Michael Mason, a former Special Forces soldier who’s lying low as a Scottish lighthouse keeper when he saves Jessie (Bodhi Rae Breathnach) from her uncle’s capsized boat. With an injured and orphaned Jessie in his hands, he is forced out of the shadows to seek help for her but is immediately rediscovered by his former boss (Bill Nighy) and the current head of the British intelligence agency MI6 (Naomi Ackie).
In a blend of “John Wick” and “The Bourne Identity,” Mason and Jessie must evade the police, a determined assassin (Bryan Vigier) and a surveillance state whose cameras track their every move. While it’s easy to take Statham’s grounded choreography for granted, watching him wield a steel chain against a pipe-touting agent is a vivid reminder of how precise he can be.
