The Tax Collector 4K 2020

I feel sorry for all of the people pinning bad reviews of your most brave and fearless look into eye of the storm that is Cholo culture, Brotherhood, respect among those who find themselves in the center of the storm that is gang life in a city that understands in it a way most never will. One major critic, with a megaphone, panned the values in this film as being cartoonish, that the pride and honor, and Familia is just a veil, but apparently, this crtic has never felt the depth of character, the loyalty and love that is Familia. This is real, this is Chicano, and Latino, and if you cannot at least take the time to understand it for what it really is, please, take your angst on over to a pg 3d animated fluff piece, and dump it there.

So all I have to say to that critic (one of many that started the hate), if you spent more than just the 20 minutes you did, skimming this film, so you could spit upon it, if you'd look down from your white tower, and spend a day in the life with the meekest victim of gang life, perhaps you'd se la boca, and understand this was not a cartoonish projection, but a dramatic reflection, of what actually plays out in the streets, in one way, or another, in all the worst ways, but more, with colors of redemption, vengeance, running through the palette, which are all very real themes in the lives of those caught up in the cycle.

Most of all, this film's biggest sin? Being released at a time where we see the closed minded often spilling their water down the necks of brown people, while telling them it is just raining. Given that, I suppose all the hate makes sense. But if people only knew that this tome is not a fabrication, but a mirror help up to the reality, of life in the hoods of the flats and hillsides of L.A., they may change their perspective enough to understand exactly what it is they are seeing unfold. Dramatic? Of course. Plausible? Absolutely. How would I know? Because I've been on the other side of that line, and this film evoked memories in me and feelings I have not felt in many years, and brought tears to my eyes, because I KNOW that loss, I have held that brother and that lover, the way David was forced to, and I know what it means to get that call, "come now, there's grief in the hood"...to support your only friends when they are under attack.

Last, Mr. Ayers, THANK YOU for keeping this so real, for giving Cle Sloan the role you did. That was very fitting, and I am thrilled to see him brought into the light, even if the cred is lost on most. (to the unknowing, BONE...among other things, was one of the driving forces who helped bring the Crips and the Bloods down from the brink of all out war, and mayhem during the 92 LA Riots, and a true OG HERO).

I could not help but notice that the film was left open ended, I honestly hope there is light there. And I can't wait for Bright 2, another saga lost on too many, but a gem, in this world of cookie cutter crap.

Thank you, Davis Ayers, for making feel deep, and staying true to your vision.