Gangland

What happens on the rez stays on the rez, and will then proceed to tear the rez apart in the gritty crime drama Gangland, written by Zach Montague and directed by Vincent Grashaw. Officer Sandra Scala (Dana Namerode) may have a hard time fitting into her new assignment out on the reservation with the tribal police. For starters, the cop training her, Teddy Sharpe (Lou Diamond Phillips), lets her know she is now in indian country. Sandra can try to refer to everyone there as indigenous, but Teddy lets her know they still see themselves as indians. Teddy is half-Filipino, but he married into the tribe and has stayed on the rez for like forever.

“Officer Sandra Scala may have a hard time fitting into her new assignment out on the reservation with the tribal police.”

Sandra notices quickly that while everyone knows Teddy, almost all of them seem mad at him. As he is always cutting folks slack, it can’t be because he is the fuzz. At least that good kid, Albert (Lane Factor), still likes Teddy. However, Teddy’s older relative, Richie (Elisha Pratt), is no longer in lock-up. Richie is still in the city outside the rez, which is the territory of Officer Daris (Nick Stahl), who used to be under Teddy as a trainee, too. Once Richie finishes shooting up someone’s sister with a heroin overdose for revenge, you can bet he is going to descend on the rez. Will Sandra and Teddy be ready for him? Will Sandra be able to handle the dark secrets the reservation has let fester?

Gangland is an excellent film that is riveting and complex. It is also very hard to write a review on, as the audience’s whole perspective gets radically altered when the secrets come out. So I have to talk about the story without letting loose any of those secrets. I don’t want to mention the original title of this film, as that gives too big a hint. Nor do I want to bring up an overlooked 90s movie from a famous director that tried to tackle a similar theme and fell short, especially since Gangland succeeds while the older film took a nap. Just know that if the movie seems like another reservation cop show when it starts, it is heading someplace much darker and heavier than it lets on.