S. Craig Zahler is proving himself to be a director worth paying attention to. I became a fan after seeing Bone Tomahawk, and have read several of his novels including Mean Business on North Ganson Street and Wraiths of the Broken Land. Also, his incredible un-produced screenplay The Brigands of Rattleborge.
BRAWL is very similar to Bone Tomahawk in terms of pacing, story structure and tone. A slow descent into a hellish situation.
I don't agree with people who say he is a "second-rate Tarantino." Tarantino does homage. Even Robert Rodriguez, in his attempts to do exploitation films, call too much attention to themselves and end up bordering on spoof, whereas BRAWL just simply is an exploitation film.
Perhaps some of Zahler's dialogue works better on the page than spoken, but I still think he is a great writer.
The low-key style of the film, with the every-man type of character Vaughn plays who gets mixed up in a serious situation makes this movie seem like a combination of Nicolas Winding Refn's PUSHER II and Cassavettes' KILLING OF A Chinese BOOKIE.
There are even some subtle hints of ASSAULT ON PRECINCT 13.
My only real gripes are that some of the dialogue exchanges are kind of stilted, and the staging of characters in some scenes seems too stiff and unnatural.
I like that the themes, such as privatization of prisons, are beneath the surface and not drilled into the audiences' head.
Its not a perfect movie, I hope Zahler continues to branch out but its a cool throwback movie that isn't trying to play it safe or cater to a wide audience and knows what type of movie it wants to be.
