10 Found Footage Movies That Are Actually Worth Your Time

While the found footage gimmick is typically connected to the horror genre, it proved equally effective in David Ayer's drama about a "day in the life" of two LAPD officers. In this day and age of body cameras and cell phone footage being used to analyze every move law enforcement makes, the tactic doesn't just feel practical, but necessary.

The writer of two other, vastly different movies about police officers, Training Day and S.W.A.T., Ayer again changes his strategy, merging the buddy cop vibes of Bad Boys with an average episode of COPS. It makes for a film that's as gritty as it is funny, and low-key as often as it is high-intensity.

Not every scene is pushing the narrative toward its climax. Oftentimes we're just kind of hanging out with the two patrolmen (Jake Gyllenhaal and Michael Peña, both in standout roles) until they get called to another public disturbance or house fire. In that way, it might be one of the most realistic crime movies ever made.

That lack of a traditional three-act structure also makes the climax hit that much harder. Because it would've felt natural to end it on a semi-upbeat note, or to have no real resolution at all. Ayer takes it a drastically different direction, and it's a true sock to the stomach.