James Badge Dale directs a gripping, ‘Traffic’-esque drug cartel crime thriller (Venice)

Tense, tight, aand deeply moving writer/director John Cotton swab‘S dramatic thriller about drug cartels/fentanyl traffickingKing Ivory” is a great surprise from the Venice Film Festival‘s Orrizonti Extras section. Reminiscent of Steven Soderbergh‘S Academy Award-winning drug trafficking thriller, “Traffic,” though grittier and slightly more condensed in scope, “King Ivory”—one of the many slang nicknames for fentanyl—centers on the ongoing war on drugs, the way it affects so many different communities and lives, and the harsh realities that struggle to make even a small dent in the conflict. Like “Traffic,” it’s multifaceted, multi-perspective, and primarily viewed through the lens of law enforcement, but the superficial similarities end there. Swab makes it his own lean, mean, muscular beast with a visceral directness that pulses throughout.

READ MORE: Venice Film Festival Preview: 15 Must-See Films

The film’s opening credits, which focus on the drug trade in Tulsa, Oklahoma, set the scene and climate: the Mexican cartels have decentralized, down to just two major organizations, fentanyl is flooding in from Europe, and dozens of new, smaller, harder-to-track groups have sprung up across the country, helping to spread the scourge. Fentanyl is also deadly and insidious, far more potent than heroin and much harder to trace across the border. Addiction and overdoses are on the rise, and drug-related crime is steadily increasing.

Swab’s film creates a complex web of seemingly disparate storylines that elegantly collide and clash with each other later in the drama, like several bomb fuses that have been lit and are all racing towards the same explosive.

One thread finds George “Smiley” Greene (Ben Foster), a tense Irish mafia criminal who uses a tracheotomy speaking valve to talk in his final days of captivity. He also has ties to the Indian Brotherhood gang and their war leader Holt Lightfeather (Graham Greene), a stoic Native American convict sentenced to life in prison who runs Tulsa’s entire drug trade from his cell.

Elsewhere, Layne West (James Badge Dale) and his partner Ty Grady (George Carroll), play highly skilled Tulsa drug agents who pull off big hauls, busting gangsters in ruthlessly efficient raids and working closely with FBI colleague Beatty (Rory Cochrane).

The final central thread revolves around Ramón Garza (Michael Mando), a local drug trafficker and lieutenant who smuggles millions of dollars worth of fentanyl out of Mexico and also makes a side income by smuggling migrants and illegal aliens into the country on his way back to Oklahoma.

And here all the storylines come together. On his way back from Mexico, where he is transporting immigrants, Garza and his partner accidentally kill a large group of migrants in their ten-wheeler truck; everyone dies from lack of oxygen, except for one boy, whom Garza eventually recruits into his drug business. Eventually, the crime scene that West and Grady find is littered with bodies, including Garza’s partner, whom he kills for trying to run away with the drugs after both men panic at the tragedy they caused.

With Foster’s Smiley back on the streets taking orders from Big Chief and Garcia involved in a rival drug operation, the war is on. But more importantly, the Tulsa police have both men in their sights.

From there, “King Ivory” takes a micro- and macro-level look at Tulsa’s fentanyl epidemic and the people caught in the middle of it, as well as the personal fallout from this story, including West’s family, his new wife, and his rebellious teenage son who is slowly but surely becoming addicted to fentanyl right before his eyes.

Smiley has a community waiting for him: his mother, Ginger (Melissa Leo), and his wayward, drug-addicted uncle, Mickey Green (Ritchie Coster), which is starting to become a burden. West’s son’s addiction grows worse and more dire,and Lago (David De La Barcena), the sole surviving Mexican migrant teenager taken into Garza’s care, quickly realizes how utterly disposable he is. There are few happy endings here, and Swab’s film is unashamed of its harsh realities.

Do you like The Playlist? Support us by subscribing to The Playlist Newsletter. All the content you want and, oh yeah. It’s free.

Though never flashy, “King Ivory” is nonetheless intense and engaging; thanks to its cinematic precision and observation, its excellent cast and its overall economy, there’s absolutely no fat on the bones here.

All raw and muscular, cameraman Will Stone gives the film an even greater authenticity with a gritty sheen and a run-and-gun handheld approach to many scenes that provide that nervous sense of anxious intuition that law enforcement is forced to make in dangerous situations. The film also has an objective, almost voyeuristic style, as it seems to pass no judgment on any of its characters. And while subtle, even a faint light of empathy for everyone involved peers through the darkness.

James Badge Dale is routinely excellent and underrated, and he excels at his tough but compassionate and loyal cop and family man persona. He’s the type of cop who’s all business on the job and surprisingly empathetic at home, especially during the brewing conflict between his son and wife. No-nonsense and a man with a mission, it’s refreshing for “King Ivory” to subvert the typical dedicated drug cop character who’s usually obsessive and a disaster in every aspect of his life outside of work.

Michael Mando also shines as drug runner Garcia, ruthless when he needs to be, but human enough to understand that a truckload of dead migrants is a heartbreaking catastrophe. Ben Foster’s always engaging, dedicated approach also pays off. There are no other big stars in this film, but each actor is convincingly compelling in their respective roles.

After I “directed”J Candyland“(2022) and “Body brokers“(2021)” is still an unknown quality for filmmaker John Swab, but the accuracy and ferocity of “King Ivory” deserve to put him higher on the list of filmmakers to watch. “King Ivory” is bold, shaped like a grimmer Michael Mann film and unstylized, nothing glamorous, and without score or music other than a diegetic club or car radio. This move—the raw, unpolished approach doesn’t work for all filmmakers who need music to emotionally accompany their viewers—but for Swab’s sharp film, chiseled and determined like its chief cop, it’s a perfect choice.

Ultimately, “King Ivory” would become the “Chinesewn” of drug cartel movies insofar as futility is a similarly grim theme. Law enforcement tries its best, but it’s an impossible war to wage well, let alone win. As Holt warns West during a prison visit, “The cartels want your children, the next generation, who want what’s new, and fentanyl is new.” It’s bleak and uncompromising, but it’s one hell of an experience. (B+/A-)

Follow all our coverage of the 2024 Venice Film Festival.