We Own the Night

Set against the backdrop of the bloody battle waged between New York City cops and the Russian mafia in the 1980s, director James Gray's period drama tells the tale of an emerging club manager whose family ties to law enforcement make him a target for the city's most dangerous criminals. Bobby Green ...more

It's the "We" in We Own the Night that's up for grabs. Though the slogan was emblazoned across uniforms of New York City police officers during the '80s, their obvious competitors for street supremacy were the hustlers, dealers, and mafiosi running an underworld which countered every tenet of the law. Crime dramas of this sort never draw clear lines between good guys and bad guys, but director James Gray bifurcates the two worlds to a fault, making the film overtly plain and simplistic. Answers ...more