F.Gary Gray

Like Spike Jonze or Michel Gondry , he came to the film industry through music videos. But unlike them, he prefers sensationalism and spectacularity to originality. The mise-en-scène or the design of flashy sequences concern him more than the script. In fact, he never writes the stories for his movies.

In 1995, Ice Cube , also African-American , and rapper DJ Pooh put the script for a hooligan comedy full of marijuana and outlandish characters on his table. Gary did not hesitate and that same year he released Everything on a Friday . With this film, the young director showed that he was capable of generating entertainment with very few resources; specifically with a couple of chairs on the porch of a house, several crazy characters, a few drinks and some drugs.

She moved from comedy to action thriller with Until the End , the story of four black women who, frustrated by the injustice of life and their efforts in vain, decide to rob banks. Naughty film and, at times, satirical, with exaggerated and histrionic performances, but once again highly entertaining. He had the best and the worst of this director; its spectacularity and implausibility.

Two years later, in 1998, he released Negociador , his first major production. The film had a cast led by Samuel L. Jackson and Kevin Spacey and a very well resolved story of intrigue and kidnappings. With this work he showed that he was made for the action thriller, that he controlled the tension like nobody else and that he was capable of coordinating a big-budget work. F. Gary Gray had become a perfect filmmaker for Hollywood, capable of creating blockbusters as eye-catching as they were blockbusters.

Critics loathed his next work, Diablo , because he didn’t hide anything under his luxurious appearance. The script was simple and imperfect, it touched on so many things that it didn’t grab any. As hard as he tried, Gary failed to fix a doomed movie of his writing. But this fiasco did not stop his career. His next work was one of his most recognized: a remake, The Italian Job .

With a big budget and a great cast – Mark Wahlberg , Edward Norton , Charlize Theron and Donald Sutherland among others Gary made one of the most watched heist movies of the 21st century. Everything in it flowed at the same speed as the famous minis. The music, the dialogues, the shots. Everything was thought of as a career that never declined. It was the work of a man who had already mastered the action thriller.

In 2009, he released A Model Citizen , a film that tells the story of Clyde Shelton, a man who, after losing his family, begins a revenge against all those who, in his opinion, are guilty. This is the perfect dramatic premise for a filmmaker who enjoys action and continuous plot twists. In fact, this work embodies all of Gary’s characteristics. It is a hectic tape, which only stops with the credits; a very powerful and effective entertainment product, but one that doesn’t leave much of a trace. This is his cinema: fast and agile, as spectacular as it is superficial, direct entertainment.