Gringo Review: Star-Studded Crime Farce Is Pretty Pitiful Pulp Fiction

The All-Star Pulp Fiction Gonzo Crime Farce (TM) its practically a genre. Get a bunch of famous people together (not like disaster movie or Oceans Eleven-level famous, but enough to reach Ive-seen-these-actors-before mark), get them mixed up in some very complicated caper or heist or scam, run them around in circles until something funny, or frightening, or in the best-case scenario, funny-then-frightening, happens. Foreign locales and cheesy soundtrack cuts are a plus. Sos gory, unexpected violence. There have been good, bad and ugly versions of this movie over the past few decades, and Gringo seems perpetually stuck between the last two categories. It cant decide whether it wants to be magnificently toxic or merely mediocre. Mileage may vary on where the movie eventually lands, but either way, this is a romp thats keen on going nowhere and sloooowly.

Harold (David Oyelowo) is a Nigerian immigrant working in a Chicago pharmaceutical company. His boss, Richard (Joel Edgerton, possibly the busiest actor in showbiz right now), is the sort of douchebag-bro who has a vanity license plate and does push-ups in his office. This gent is also not adverse to doing his fellow corporate apex predator, Elaine (Charlize Theron), in said office as well, which is exactly what gets interrupted one afternoon by a frantic phone call. Long flashback-story short, the two executives have brokered a deal involving marijuana in pill form, currently being manufactured in Mexico until complete legalization becomes the law of the land. All of three of them had gone south of the border to finalize some details. Harold stayed behind. Now hes been kidnapped. And Richard and Elaine think that, instead of paying a ransom, their coworker may be better off dead.

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Theres more, much more, because of course there is. Like a Mexican cartel drug lord, whos a Beatles superfan and has a tendency to shoot anyone who thinks Sgt Pepper is the bands best album. (Spoiler alert: Hes more of a Let It Be guy.) And Harolds wife Bonnie (Thandie Newton), whos having an affair behind his back. And a sleazy British musician (Harry Treadaway), whos goaded by a comely young woman hello there, Paris Jackson! into picking up some contraband in Mexico as well, with his guitar-shop-owning girlfriend (Amanda Seyfried) in tow. Also theres two inept brothers who own a hotel and Richards own sibling, an ex-mercenary (Sharlto Copley) whos agreed to go extract Harold for a price. And some plot twists. And double crosses. And bullets. Etc.

All of this should be a cakewalk for director Nash Edgerton, Joels brother and the braintrust behind the loose Australian filmmaking collective Blue Tongue. If youve seen the amazing gangster flick Animal Kingdomor that creepy Joseph Gordon-Levitt character study Hesheror Nashs own 2009 neo-noir The Square,youve seen a Blue Tongue movie and even if the groups arthouse 2.0 take on Ozploitation (or vice versa) somehow didnt leave you slack-jawed, you could appreciate the sheer piss-and-vinegar excitement behind its projects. Only the first part of that dual descriptive shows up here, and Gringos overall sourness only makes its overfamiliarity that much more contemptible. We know we dont have to necessarily care about the caricatures youre foisting on us in the name of coolness but cant you at least make this fun instead of a slog? Theres a D.O.A.-ness to this whole affair, except when the filmmaker, a former stuntman, gets to roll a car not once but twice,or stage a headshot or two. Then its back to running his actors through this poorly conceived mousetrap of a movie. He is better than this.

So is Oyelowo naturally! and Joel, and Newton, and certainly Theron, whos the only person that seems determined to make the best of a bad situation. You forget that she first made a name for herself in a movie just like this, 2 Days in the Valley (1996), and she gives a performance here thats the definition of doubling down. Whether shes slinking through office meetings like a sexed-up shark or barking Mamet-worthy obscenities or giving herself an aggressive, self-loathing pep talk (the movies highpoint), Theron invests a sense of livewire commitment in her corporate hotshot that the film isnt worthy of. Its almost like shes singlehandedly trying to electrify her fellow cast mates back to life a sort of come on guys, lets all put on a show here 1,000-wattage jolt. Theres a momentary spike whenever she flashes a fuck-you glare or hidden-agenda come-hither stare. Then Gringo goes back to flatlining. Its a crime movie that doesnt pay.