Following a couple of losers as they cruise through the mean streets of South Central Los Angeles might sound like a dreary moviegoing experience, but “Harsh Times” is anything but routine.
Its subject sounds familiar, but this film has a scary, muscular drive all its own. David Ayer, the man who wrote “Training Day,” makes his directing debut here, and it’s a strong one.
Although his movie is relentlessly pessimistic, Ayer has an uncanny ear for the language and rhythm of young males going nowhere – and he’s gotten two brilliant performances to carry the weight.
The losers are Jim (Christian Bale) and Mike (Freddy Rodriguez), childhood friends now in their mid-20s. As we see in an opening flashback, Jim is messed-up from his experiences serving as an Army Ranger in Afghanistan. He’s clearly not ready for civilian life, but he seeks a job with the LAPD and marriage to his girlfriend (Tammy Trull) in Mexico.
Mike’s girlfriend (Eva Longoria, from “Desperate Housewives”) has made it clear she expects her man to find decent work. Jim offers to drive Mike around to job interviews – an offer that quickly devolves into a beer-swilling, pot-smoking cruise around L.A.
Things get even more complicated over the next few days: some violent situations, a stolen gun, and unlikely good fortune when Jim’s particular skills bring him to the attention of the Homeland Security department.
Ayer’s story winds through its downbeat trajectory with a sinuous momentum. He doesn’t give us a hero to root for; both Jim and Mike keeps messing things up, making bad decisions at every chance they have to save themselves.
Ayer lived in South Central as a teenager and served in the Navy, experiences that obviously affected this script (it was written before the success of “Training Day”). He has a grasp of masculine codes, right down to the absurd lengths Mike will go to in order to convince his girlfriend that he really has been job-hunting instead of slacking off.
Christian Bale, the latest “Batman,” is right on the money as the dangerously unstable Jim. It’s a performance so full of pyrotechnics that his sidekick shouldn’t stand a chance – but Rodriguez (a regular on “Six Feet Under” and a star of the upcoming “Bobby”) more than holds his own. He makes you feel the shifts in his personality each time Jim talks Mike into yet another bad idea.
The film sounds and looks almost as tight as Martin Scorsese’s breakthrough film, “Mean Streets,” with a similar grasp of group dynamics, sudden violence, and urban lingo. It’s potent stuff – not always easy to watch, but the real deal nonetheless.
Freddy Rodriguez (left) and Christian Bale star in “Harsh Times.”
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
