Police Beat

2005

1 hr. 21 min.

Crime

Drama

List

73%

15 Reviews

Tomatometer

57%

500+ Ratings

Audience Score

An African immigrant (Pape Sidy Niang) wonders about his girlfriend's (Anna Oxygen) faithfulness while working as a bicycle policeman in Seattle.

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Audience Member

Pensive study of one man's journey takes on a bit too much for its short running time.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

02/27/23

Full Review

walter m

"Police Beat" is a slight but somewhat compelling slice of life movie with a little stream of consciousness thrown in for good measure. Z.(Pape Sidy Niang) is a recent immigrant from Senegal who works as a bicycle cop in Seattle while dreaming of owning an apartment building. While devoutly religious, he really has no faith in his girlfriend Rachel(Anna Oxygen) who has gone camping with her roommate Jeff(Elijah Geiger) because Z. hates camping. Instead, they have agreed to go lindy dancing, presumably when she gets back. Part of Z.'s concerns about his relationship with Rachel arise from what he witnesses on the job, a good deal of which involve misdemeanors of varying perversity.(As the epigraph says, they are based on true cases. Why am I not surprised?) Separately, they are no big deal. Together, they might form a disturbing pattern for an outsider, especially considering Z's partner Swan(Eric Breedlove) being involved with Mary(Sarah Harlett), a prostitute, while others might form a different opinion of Z. just based on the color of his skin or his uniform.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

03/31/23

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Audience Member

A stinker. If you can make it past the first 15 minutes you're a stronger man than I.

Rated 0.5 out of 5 stars

02/19/23

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Audience Member

Amazingly compelling and remarkable sad. Beautifully done all around.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

02/16/23

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Audience Member

Great cinematography. Attempts to make Seattle both the objective accounts of the police reports it takes its story from, as well as the subjective playground for its protagonist. The problem is, there's not much more to it than that.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

01/19/23

Full Review

Audience Member

beautiful. i think if i had seen it before zoo, i would have gone crazy about it. but seeing after zoo, i can't help but feeling slightly underwhelmed.

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

01/25/23

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Robinson Devor

Director

Pape Sidy Niang

Z

Anna Oxygen

Actor

Eric Breedlove

Actor

Sarah Harlett

Actor

Elijah Geiger

Homeless Boy

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J. R. Jones

Chicago Reader

Screenwriters Charles Mudede and Robinson Devor combed through police reports to create this surreal wide-screen drama.

Jul 13, 2022

Full Review

Chris Chang

Film Comment Magazine

Police Beat is an object so gorgeously odd, and so completely at peace with its own oddness, it's hard to compare it to anything else.

Jun 17, 2013

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Michael Wilmington

Chicago Tribune

A very strange but affecting movie.

Rated: 2.5/4

Aug 3, 2006

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Jas Keimig

The Stranger (Seattle, WA)

Niang is a joy to watch, a natural and enigmatic presence on-screen.

Dec 8, 2021

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Cole Smithey

ColeSmithey.com

A poetic character study etched in its primrose Portland, Seattle locations, "Police Beat" is a clear-eyed dissection of the immigrant experience in pre-smartphone America.

Rated: B+

Mar 3, 2019

Full Review

Paula Nechak

Seattle Post-Intelligencer

There are great flashes of Mudede's potent prose and the main character is fascinating -- a Sengalese Seattle bike cop who is going through a separation from his girlfriend while witnessing crimes and misdemeanors throughout the city.

Rated: B

Jul 13, 2006

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Synopsis

An African immigrant (Pape Sidy Niang) wonders about his girlfriend's (Anna Oxygen) faithfulness while working as a bicycle policeman in Seattle.

Director: Robinson Devor
Executive Producer: Michael Seiwerath
Screenwriter: Robinson Devor, Charles Mudede
Genre: Crime, Drama
Original Language: English
Release Date (DVD): Jul 10, 2007