Shot Caller

Directed by Ric Roman Waugh, Shot Caller follows a successful stockbroker (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau’s Jacob Harlon) as he drunkenly causes a deadly collision and is sentenced to 16 months of jail time – with the narrative detailing Jacob’s eventual rise through the ranks within a white-power gang. It’s a fairly far-fetched premise that is, for the most part, employed to entertaining and sporadically engrossing effect by Waugh, as the filmmaker, armed with his own script, delivers a time-shifting narrative that generally fares best when focused on Jacob’s initial exploits within the hard-as-nails penitentiary to which he’s been sentenced (eg a lot of this stuff is impressively riveting and boasting an irresistibly authentic feel). The better-than-average vibe is heightened and perpetuated by Coster-Waldau’s terrific turn as the movie’s complicated central character, and there’s little doubt, too, that Waugh does a superb job of eliciting equally spellbinding work from an eclectic roster such periphery players as Jon Bernthal, Jeffrey Donovan, and Holt McCallany. There’s little doubt, however, that Shot Caller‘s palpably overlong running time paves the way for a hit-and-miss second half that contains its share of lulls, with virtually everything involving Omari Hardwick’s grizzled parole officer coming off as especially needless and irrelevant, although the picture ultimately recovers for a satisfying closing stretch that packs a fairly emotional punch – which, in the end, cements its place as a stirring drama that could (and should) have topped out at around 90 minutes.

*** out of ****

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