Crown Vic

One night in Los Angeles. Ray Mandel, a veteran patrol officer, is given a rookie, Nick Holland. The same night two cop killers are being hunted across the city. The film follows that shift almost entirely from inside the patrol car. Joel Souza writes and directs. Thomas Jane plays Ray and Luke Kleintank plays Nick. Alec Baldwin is among the producers. The title comes from the car: the Ford Crown Victoria was the standard American patrol vehicle for years, and it is used here as a location. The narrative is not divided into acts; it goes from call to call, each stop its own small story. The film neither praises nor condemns. Ray does not follow the rules and the film does not hide his errors, but it reaches no judgment about the system either, and that ambivalence is what critics argued about most. Joel Souza became known afterwards for something else: he was the director wounded in the 2021 firearm incident on the set of Rust, which killed the cinematographer Halyna Hutchins. Who it is for: viewers who like single night narratives and confined space tension. Who it is not for: the plot is thin, the episodes do not connect, and the film takes no clear position on police violence.