The Seven Five

Tiller Russell's fast-moving, invigorating documentary will make very gratifying viewing for fans of all those New York-set cop movies by Martin Scorsese and Sidney Lumet.

The talking heads approach gets a bit relentless, but it's hair-raising stuff.

Dowd's account to camera of his misdeeds is every bit as audacious as his criminal acts. A born raconteur, he pulls the viewer in just as he did to his various accomplices.

Told in a rush of talking heads and archive footage, this is a siren-flash of a film, charged up in the edit like a true-crime GoodFellas.

It's an absorbing study of group dysfunction.

Like watching a car crash, with all the elegance implied.

A true-to-life documentary that feels ripped out of a Martin Scorsese film plot.

The result is like a cheap cop show, not something you'd choose to watch in the cinema.

It's not quite Goodfellas, but it's better than Casino.

While Tiller is clearly a little seduced by the drama of it all, he's good at exploring the moral myopia that sets in when the view from the trenches elevates loyalty to each other above protecting and serving the public.