The politically incorrect trailer for David Ayer’s gripping new feature called The Tax Collector rolled out, giving viewers a violent treat into the world of collecting dues from the local gangs populating Los Angeles.
Specifically, the film follows Bobby Soto and Shia LeBeouf through their short journey into collecting payments from the gangs in the borough they’ve been assigned to. Originally I thought LeBeouf was miscast as the intimidating enforcer of the duo, but the trailer quickly reveals that he’s a poser who puts on a front of intimidation in order to strike fear into the hearts of the gangs, like a gun-wielding version of an IRS man.
It makes more sense than having a tough guy like Dave Bautista posing as a tough guy as a front, which in turn would make him seem pretty weak. In this case, a weak guy like LeBeouf posing as a tough guy definitely fits the pseudo-machismo oftentimes found among gangs, where they’re more bark than bite.
You can check out the trailer below, courtesy of Movie Trailers Source.
The trailer avoids giving away too much while also giving us just enough to find some semblance of intensity and intrigue from what’s being depicted on-screen.
The general gist is that the local tax collectors, Soto and LeBeouf, end up on the short end of the collection and in response Soto has his family taken hostage.
The trailer wisely avoids revealing which gang has taken Soto’s family hostage, just as they wisely avoid how the duo came up short in their collections.
I can’t imagine either or both of the main characters coming out alive in this one, but it looks like it could be the opposite side of the viewing spectrum for a film like End of Watch, which chronicled the look into the lives of two police officers.
One other quick note: we see that Ayer hasn’t shied away from accurately portraying the gang demographics in the film. It mostly centers around Hispanic and black gangs that makeup the majority of the troublemakers and thugs within the neighborhood, the way it should be.
A lot of films in recent times have tried to shy away from depicting POCkers as villains, but Ayer oftentimes aims for some semblance of authenticity within his films, and that means accurately portraying gang demographics on-screen just as they are in real life.
Based on the trailer The Tax Collector looks like an interesting film, and hopefully it’s not filled to the brim with any kind of Left-wing degeneracy.
