3 out of 5

Directed by: Nash Edgerton

A busy and high-profile stunt coordinator who has paused, like, once a decade, to direct a film, and when he does they’re not particularly stunt-laden fests, but rather down and dirty genre pics.  You could accuse him of nepotism in casting his brother, but turns out said brother can act, and is a goddamned good director in his own right as well.  In short, I love Nash Edgerton, just on principle.  I wish I was equally enamored with his other Blue Tongue film crew partners, but no matter: the guy who knocked out some early, entertaining stunt demos produced a modern noir masterpiece with The Square, and now – although admittedly not at that level of quality – he’s gifted us with the uniquely flavored Gringo, which is the kind if A-list, non-blockbuster, non-Oscar bait, non-quick fix, solid film we don’t see very much.  ‘Solid’ is an underwhelming term for something hard to achieve: it’s the experience you can see yourself watching time and again; the movie that comes on [whatever we’ll consider the modern equivalent of cable] and you can’t help but pause, stop what you’re doing, and watch.  ‘Oh yeah,’ your subconscious goes, ‘I like this movie.’

…Even though it’s a bit at odds with itself, with too many characters – but man, that cast – requiring too many oddly-timed cuts in order to fit in all the casually intersecting plotlines.  We love Harry Treadaway, but his role is almost completely superfluous, except to navigate another character (Amanda Seyfried) into a somewhat equally superfluous place; Charlize Theron nails the shallow Boss Bitch character – as does her costume designer – but she isn’t given a fair shake when paired with male Boss Bitch Joel Edgerton, whose part in matters allows him to dose his asshole role with some humanity to balance out its cartoonish evilness.  And the company these two run – which David Oyelowo’s lead character also works for, dutifully, until finding out he’s getting unreasonably screwed in a merger (as well as in other ways) and decides – for plot justifiable reasons, I swear! – to stage a kidnapping which – for further justifiable reasons! – turns into a real kidnapping – this company is like one giant MacGuffin of intentions and making money, which is fine, except the floating sense of reality ungrounds the underlying stakes of the film, which means it never can really ramp up to the Fargo-esque dark comedy its many, many headahots aim for.

Nonetheless: solid.  Edgerton shoots and paces each individual scene diligently (excusing those intra-scene cuts), giving ample room for action to play out when necessary, and for his actors to fill the space the script might not’ve.  As such, every moment is a breezy joy, each new element / character added keeping the entertainment flame well stoked.  Yeah, maybe it never gets fully blazing, but sometimes it’s the job of the solid film to stick around, and not necessarily burn out.