DOC NYC film review: 'A Cops and Robbers Story'

It's not often one film tells the story of both cops and criminals. And even more extraordinary for a film like the documentary 'A Cops and Robbers Story' (screening at DOC NYC 2020) to follow one man's incredible journey from crack dealer to police officer.

In short: Growing up in the Jamaica district of Queens in the 70s and 80s, Corey Pegues played cops and robbers like all the other kids on the block, but he never expected to become both.

Within the first 5 minutes, 'Cops and Robbers' absolutely establishes what Pegues's fellow officers thought of him as a fresh-faced officer - his partner, in a talking head interview, drops an n-bomb when describing Pegues. This calibrates the audience for the world Pegues grew up in - how the NYPD would cast a former criminal and how the world perceives a street hustler who grew up in the troubled Jamaica-Queens neighborhood.

The fun of 'Cops and Robbers' is watching his friends and family react to the crazy turns Pegues's life. Including his family, police department colleagues and his best friends from the streets in the documentary fills in the gaps that just a sit-down interview with Pegues would have missed. At times, the people who knew Pegues best are every bit as incredulous about his sharp twists in his life as the audience. Pegues is a larger-than-life character with a truly larger-than-life story. He simply defies every conventional idea of what a police officer looks like and sounds like. There's an undercurrent of self-determinism in this story, where Pegues takes control of his life and his narrative, not content to allow his past to dictate his future.

Identity will always be one of the strongest fundamental foundations of storytelling - and 'Cops and Robbers' really hits its stride when Pegues must reconcile his life as a decorated police officer and his past as a criminal on the streets. One of his friends liken Pegues's internal conflict to that of a person living with a deep secret - and how the burden of that secret prevents him from reaching his full potential. The film depicts a young street criminal who matured into a community police officer - and how the world simply cannot process these two contrasting, seemingly incongruous concepts, exist within one singular person. And this riveting documentary ultimately stops trying to pick between two binary options, resolute to tell the story of a "thug/cop" rather than a "thug cop."

Final verdict: 'Cops and Robbers' is an utterly fascinating character portrait of a man with two foot firmly planted on both sides of the law.

Score: 4/5

'A Cops and Robbers Story' screens during DOC NYC 2020. This documentary not yet rated and has a running time of 83 minutes.