When a young man’s first drug offense lands him 10 years in prison, his father (Johnson) enlists an ambitious judge (Sarandon) to help take down a local dealer in exchange for a reduced sentence. Any high-profile film willing to point a finger at the slaughterhouse ethos of America’s drug laws deserves credit, but Snitch gets lost in naiveté. When a desperate leading man on the verge of vigilantism types “drug cartel” into Wikipedia, we know what sort of film we’re in for.
Snitch | Directed by Ric Roman Waugh (USA, UAE 2013) with Dwayne Johnson, Jon Bernthal, Susan Sarandon, Rafi Gavron. Opens June 6
Originally published in Issue #117, June 2013