The Tax Collector

Shia LaBeouf was on such a good run. American Honey, an honest to god masterpiece. Borg Vs McEnroe. The Peanut Butter Falcon and Honey Boy, a 2019 one-two that anyone would be proud of, banishing memories of those horrible Transformers sequels. His legal troubles looked to be over. He seemed more comfortable in his own skin in interviews. Then he went and played a chicano gangster in David Ayer's new film and well........

David (Bobby Soto) is a man living a double life. To his wife Alexis (Cinthya Carmona) he's a hard working, loving husband and a great father to his kids. What she doesn't know is his job is to collect protection payments from Latino gangs to allow them to operate on his boss Wizard's turf. If payment isn't prompt and accurate there is death and destruction courtesy of David's co-worker Creeper (LaBeouf). In the run up to his daughter's Quinceañera things are running smoothly until an outside presence makes itself known and David's life gets turned upside down.

This film was dire. An ugly watch, filled with ugly violence and uglier stereotypes. David Ayer has built a career on ugliness and here he's reached his nadir. It's boring, messy and it takes cliches that seemed old hat almost 30 years ago in American Me & Blood In, Blood Out and doubles down on them before splashing it all with almost unwatchable brutality in an attempt to keep things up to date. It paints Los Angeles, a vibrant, melting pot of a city as a hellscape filled with black and brown faces who only exist to rob, maim and kill. It's lead, David is so devoid of anything approaching a personality that you have no one to hook you into the story, nothing to hope for. Late in the story his kids are in peril and you just won't care what happens to them. When a film can't even make you care about kids it's on a hiding to nothing. Ayer wants us to give a fuck about him, and throughout he's called a good man, an honourable one, a "candle in the darkness" but when you have a lead character who holds someone out of a moving car, grinds half their face off on the asphalt as an interrogation and then shoots them in the head, empathy/sympathy is a long shot.

Then there's LaBeouf as Creeper, the sidekick, Mr Intense. The hombre played by the gringo. Yup. You'd assume the days of a minority character being played by a white actor are over but here it is again, large as life and twice as cringey and because David is such a void you can't ignore Creeper or the painfully non-existent chemistry between two characters who constantly compare themselves to brothers. It's a laughable turn from a usually reliable actor. LaBeouf got so into character for this that he actually got a full chest tattoo and you get the feeling he's going to be scarlet looking into mirrors for the foreseeable future. In a career marked by edgy choices this one is just wrong wrong wrong.

I hated this film. It's a sludge of casual racism, toxic machismo and overwrought gore. Ayer wrote Training Day almost 20 years ago and what seemed fresh then seems terribly trite now having been recycled over and over again in his other films Harsh Times, Street Kings, End Of Watch and Bright. Do yourself a favour. Ignore this one. Pretend it didn't happen. Watch LaBeouf in The Peanut Butter Falcon instead. You'll get far more out of it.

Oh and it's streaming online now if you hate yourself.