The Infiltrator

— Bryan Cranston really is mesmerizing with his commanding voice, intelligent eyes, and furrowed brow. It’s hard not to compare his role in “The Infiltrator” with his Walter White character in “Breaking Bad”. Both are men moving inside the drug world, but as “The Infiltrator” he’s on the right side of the law. It’s based on the true story of FBI agent Robert Mazur who goes undercover as a money launderer to take down part of Pablo Escobar’s cartel. It’s not very glitzy, more seedy than anything, but it's the right undercurrent for this fascinating, tense story of a sting operation. Cranston is perfect at showing the toll pretending to be someone else takes, particularly when the stakes are so high. Some of the film seems familiar, but that okay since there just seems to be an environment in which drug lords operate that’s portrayed similarly in most drug cartel films. Cranston alone makes it worth seeing, but it helps that the story's really very good too. (My only word of caution is that while less bloody than many, there are a couple of scenes that happen quickly and almost without warning, that aren’t for the squeamish.)

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[2016. 127 min. Directed by Brad Furman. Starring Bryan Cranston, John Leguizamo, and Diane Kruger.]
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/13/movies/the-infiltrator-review-bryan-cranston.html