Wayne Kramer’s Crossing Over trailer online

Wayne Kramer directed the hard-boiled thriller Running Scared back in 2006. I was surprised the movie didn’t have a better run in U.S. theaters. It was extremely well-crafted, and the contrasty cinematography, reminded me of Mel Gibson’s revenge action flick Payback. There’s a great animatic at the end of the film, composed wholly of Kramer’s own storyboards, and concept art, that’s absolutely amazing.

Crossing Over may seem to be a change of pace for the young director after that violent slice of urban crime drama, but Kramer also directed William H. Macy, Alec Baldwin and Maria Bello, in the seminal Vegas story, The Cooler. I can’t say enough great things about this astonishing piece of cinema. All three actors give career-defining performances, in a film that gracefully etched a new definition for what it means to be down and out in Sin City.

Now Kramer has written and directed the very serious drama Crossing Over, which is based on Kramer’s own short film from 1996. Crossing Over follows the lives of immigrants from around the world entering Los Angeles every day, with hopeful visions of a better life, but little notion of what that life may cost. Their desperate scenarios test the humanity of immigration enforcement officers. In Crossing Over, writer-director Wayne Kramer explores the allure of the American dream, and the reality that immigrants find, and create, in 21st century L.A. The gripping drama has an all-star cast which includes Harrison Ford, Sean Penn, Ray Liotta and Ashley Judd.

Crossing Over is due in theaters sometime in 2009.

Check out the trailer for Crossing Over below.