TRANSPECOS (2016)

The poster makes you think this is something you’ve already seen.  You probably haven’t, but you’d be half right.  A chamber-sized Mexican-American Border Patrol suspenser, and not a bad example of the form, it nicely revives ‘80s Neo-Noir style to 2016, but feels used up before it even gets started.  Co-writer/director Greg Kwedar sets up three contrasting types of patrolmen in the middle of SouthWest Nowhere: newbie Johnny Simmons; low-key local Gabriel Luna; seen-it-all Clifton Collins Jr.*, their tiny outpost dry, lonely, forgotten.  But when a suspicious vehicle tries to get past them, a can of hidden drugs, a shooting, an injury, and a member of the unit working with the Cartel on the smuggle turns a ho-hum assignment into a tangle of escalating danger.  Well acted (particularly by Luna whose original choices really pay off), with locations that scream No Way Out, and a neat ironic turn at the end for a group of ‘illegals.’  Some of the action might be more clearly staged, but it’s the well-worn story tropes and reversals of fortune that keep this stuck in first gear.  Like the quotidian duties at the border before things go kerblooey: been there/done that.  To its credit, at just shy of an hour & a half, it does know when to clear out.

SCREWY THOUGHT OF THE DAY/DOUBLE-BILL:  *After three decades in mostly supporting roles (well over a hundred credits), Collins is having a breakthru moment with a lead in the well-reviewed JOCKEY/’21.  Or would be having one if only people were seeing or streaming it.  A rare example of Covid-19 stopping a breakthru.