Only it’s more like 100 kilos, and a near-army of cops comes to stope them. The lawbreakers here, and boy do they ever break the law, are a white guy and a black guy: Taylor Kitsch (who’s finding a fruitful niche in character roles) and Stephan James are armed-to-the-teeth small-timers who break into a restaurant to lift 30 kilos of cocaine from its freezer. '21 Bridges' is again very smart in making that more implicit than explicit. While there’s not a lot of explicit talk about race, he’s positioned as an African-American cop entering territory that’s all the more dangerous because of his skin color. Boseman, who also is a co-producer of the movie, does a lot of running and driving and gun-pointing and car-hood slamming here, but his character also does a lot of thinking-and a lot of maneuvering. It’s this kind of mindful direction and editing that helps make “21 Bridges” one of the most entertaining and thoughtful American policiers in recent memory.
