#1: I wasn't even interested in seeing this film by writer/director David Ayer. Its tale, wherein two upstanding police officers end up in the cross-hairs of a south-of-the-border drug cartel, purely by doing their job well and being decent, sounded like a TV production. But, like
Michael Mann's
Heat the characters have rich relationships, with each other, with their respective spouses, ensuring this film's place in the cop genre. As the cartel closes in it begins to approach an epic dimension of a great Western. Gyllenhaal is looser than he's ever been and it fits him. Michael Pena is on my short list for Best Supporting Actor.