Fest Track On Sirk TV Film Review: A COPS AND ROBBERS STORY [Big Sky Documentary Film Festival 2021 - Virtual]
The path of life is about cumulation of experiences but also choices made. "A Cops & Robbers Story", playing the Big Sky Documentary Film Festival, is dynamic in that it gives a much more real perspective of the life of Corey Pegues, a decorated NYPD officer who rose through the ranks but came from the streets. Only in the past couple years has he fully come out with the truth of his full story in that, in his youth before he joined the Army, he was a street corner drug dealer. A specific instance (which is mythic in certain ways in its own right) forces him to change course but not change the core of who he was which was an ambitious youth who needed opportunities. This documentary has a different feel. Perhaps since it seems that it is was made through the UK. Director Ilinca Calugareanu gets the gritty feel of Queens in the 80s and 90s with the narrative parts she creates. The recreations feel like a Nick Gomez film in their own right because it captures the lighting and feel of the street corners but also the vernacular/vibe. As a result it makes the real stories more powerful. Corey's friends from his youth are the most powerful interviews besides Corey himself because of the way they refer to and tell the story of the streets and the way certain actions and things went. The reveal who plays Corey as his 16 year old self is also quite reflexive.
The eventual rise of Pegues through the ranks while being well spoken, highly educated, completely motivated and not worried (for the most part) about speaking his mind really comes through, no matter what people might think after he retired from the department (which he only had to because of a herniated disk). He did do a podcast interview with an established outlet where he revealed his past which caused some disruption and problems with perception both with the media and the NYPD. But Pegues reiterated that that was his truth and the truth. Some of older video footage from the 00s shows Pegues in the community projects and the district he worked talking to the members and the youth because he knew what they were living through. In the aftermath of the civil unrest in the past year, this film becomes even more relevant.
The unusual aspect is that it both speaks to the inequity but also the ambition to overcome. It speaks of the disconnect between the police department and the people they serve especially in NYC but that can be seen as a mirror around the country (especially how the story develops with certain events in Nassau County, both before and after he retired). It would be interesting to hear what Pegues has to say in the aftermath of recent events like George Floyd and certain conflicts with the Black Lives Matter movement. But this doc really speaks to the heart of it without melodrama and without preaching. Corey's boys from the street are proud of how he brought himself out of the streets, even if he did become a cop. But the aspect of racism and politics always skims under the surface and hearing Pegues, his colleagues at the NYPD and his friends/peers from the streets gives a truly balanced view of his path while the narrative forms are accurately done even down to the coloring and film stock pe se. "A Cops And Robbers Story" is an achievement in the aspect of making a modern doc that feels wholly authentic. A
By Tim Wassberg
