Bobby Soto and Cinthya Carmona Lead The Cast Of David Ayer’s Latest Gritty Crime Action Film
By Roberto Leal
At first glance, writer/director David Ayer’s The Tax Collector might appear to be a mundane tale of a bureaucrat dressed in an ill fitting three piece suit working in a cubicle for the IRS. Maybe you can’t tell a book by its cover, but in this case, you should be able to tell a movie by its director.
The Tax Collector is another in a series of well-crafted Latino-themed, high-caliber, crime-thrillers, by David Ayer. Ayer, a high school dropout, spent his troubled, formative years in the tough neighborhoods of South Central Los Angeles. It is obvious, growing up in that barrio landscape, influences the underlying mise-en-scene of his movies, Sabotage, End of Watch, Suicide Squad, and Harsh Times.
In his films, Ayer, like directors Quentin Tarantino and Martin Scorsese, brings a unique authenticity to his gritty, inner-city crime dramas, using dialog bristling with profanities and tough-as-nails vatos right off the mean streets of his old ‘hood. Ayer also frequently uses punk subculture themes in his films. And like Tarantino and Scorsese, Ayer’s characters are anti-heroes from the dark underbelly of society.
Ayer’s films are extremely and unapologetically action-oriented. His dialog is crude and graphic in nature. David, the protagonist is a loving, caring husband and father, but is also a callous cold-blooded killer.
In The Tax Collector, David (Bobby Soto, A Better Life), and Creeper (Shia LaBeouf, Honey Boy, Transformers), are so-called “tax collectors” for a big-time “shot caller” calling the shots from prison. David is a family man; Creeper is a health food fanatic. David and Creeper use intimidation, unfriendly persuasion at the point of a gun, strong-arm tactics and threats of bad intentions, to extract monthly taxes from various “clients”. They work for a mysterious kingpin simply known in the film as “The Wizard”.
Things start to go bad when Conejo (Jose Conejo Martín, Rap Artist, Deputy), an evil, ruthless mobster from Mexico, tries to take over the “tax collector” rackets. But David and Creeper have nothing to worry about because they work for The Wizard. Well not quite. Hubris is the undoing of all heroes, anti or otherwise. It is no different in Ayer’s gangster morality tale.
A blood-soaked, bullet-riddled war between the forces of The Wizard and Conejo results in a body count almost too large to count.
Like Henry Hill in Scorsese’s classic Goodfellas, in the end, David loses almost everything. It’s hard to feel any real sympathy for David’s bad career choice. Afterall, everyone in The Tax Collector is an arch criminal. This kind of storytelling is often disturbing and not particularly uplifting in tone or theme. But you must give Ayer his props — he is damn good at it.
While all of Ayer’s films exhibit the same high production values, not all have been met with critical success. The highly anticipated Suicide Squad (2016) was met with negative reviews from fans and critics.
“Nothing hurts more than to pick up a newspaper and see a couple of years of your blood, sweat and tears ripped to shreds,” Ayer said in response to the negative reviews.
The Tax Collector is bolstered by strong performances by Soto and LeBeouf, but also Cinthya Carmona (East Los High), George Lopez (Valentine’s Day, Rio) Lana Parilla (Once Upon a Time). The cinematography by Salvatore Torino (Everest, Inferno, Bird Box), brings Ayer’s stark, savage saga into crisp and colorful relief. Composer Michael Yezerski’s (Blindspotting, Mr. Inbetween) music accentuates the action sequences and nicely underscores the underworld urgency of The Tax Collector.
It is encouraging to see that Ayer’s movies are cast with so many talented, Latino actors. In The Tax Collector he takes his casting to the next level, casting Soto and Carmona in the lead roles. Not something you see studio funded films, unless the Latinos are already superstars i.e. Jennifer Lopez. So more props to Ayer for his casting.
It is also hard to argue with the financial success of this genre. Like Scorsese, whose films almost exclusively take place in his hometown of New York City, Ayer’s Los Angeles is a crucial feature and character in his cinematic meditations on the crime-thriller. However, it must be noted that the endless depiction of Latinos in gang banger, drug cartel stories, portraying gun crazy, ruthless criminals is contributing to a negative perception of Chicanos and Latinos to the general movie going audience.
Are these kinds of films pigeon-holing Latino actors into stereotypical, “dark side of the moon” representations of the greater Latinx culture, experience and people?
The Tax Collector clearly demonstrates that Ayer is a genuine auteur of the urban action-adventure crime thriller. His uncompromising, modern-day Latino gangster films come directly from his life experience on the harsh, unforgiving boulevards of South Central Los Angeles. But surely, there are other stories Ayer can tell about Latinos.
Perhaps one day, Ayer will take us on a walk on the mild side of the hard-edged streets that formed his storytelling persona. Perhaps he’ll cast Bobby Soto in a kinder, gentler tale about a legitimate Latino tax collector, who wears an ill-fitting, three-piece suit, has a wife, two kids a mortgage, a dog, and works in a cubicle in the local tax assessor’s office, and who occasionally shocks his co-workers with an “F” bomb fusillade. But then that would not be a David Ayer film.
The Tax Collector begins streaming on August 7, 2020 with a limited theatrical release.
THE TAX COLLECTOR
Writer/Director: Writer/Director: David Ayer
Distributor: RLJE Films (select theaters, VOD, digital)
Cast: Bobby Soto, Cinthya Carmona, George Lopez, Shia LaBeouf, Elpidia Carrillo, Lana Parrilla, David Castañeda, Conejo, Cheyenne Rae Hernandez, Cle Sloan, Noemi Gonzalez, Juan Carlos Cantu, Chelsea Rendon, Rene Moran
Producers: Chris Long, David Ayer, Tyler Thompson, Matt Antoun
Executive producers: Douglas Duncan, Buddy Patrick, Steve Matzkin, Misook Doolittle, Sarah Schroeder-Matzkin, Mickey Gooch, Jr., Doug McKay, Cindy Bond, Todd Williams
Director of photography: Salvatore Totino
Production Companies: Fast Horse Pictures, Kodiak Pictures, Cedar Park Entertainment
Casting: Mary Vernieu, Lindsay Graham-Ahanonu
Editor: Geoffrey O’Brien
Music: Michael Yezerski