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Monday, November 10, 2014
MOVIE REVIEW
Kill The Messenger
Risking Life And Limb In Search Of The Truth
Jeremy
Renner as investigative journalist Gary Webb in Michael Cuesta's thriller "Kill
The Messenger".
Focus Features
by
Omar P.L. Moore/PopcornReel.com
FOLLOW
Monday,
November 10,
2014
"Kill The Messenger" covers the explosive story of the CIA funneling
crack-cocaine into such black neighborhoods and areas as South Central Los
Angeles and other places in the 1980s. The funneling was part of a
operation to fund and give arms to the Nicaraguan Contras to fight and
destabilize their government. In 1996 San Jose Mercury News investigative
reporter
Gary Webb
blew the lid off these unseemly and disturbing dealings. Mr. Webb's
Mercury News editors
and executives rebuffed him, and his
"Dark
Alliance" stories and book were national and international headlines,
so much so that then-CIA director John Deutch made a historic visit to South
Central to explain to a very concerned citizenry.
Michael Cuesta's film centers on this story and the resulting betrayal and
alienation that Mr. Webb faced from his reporting. Jeremy Renner is
compelling as Mr. Webb, a dogged investigative reporter seeking the truth.
At times "Kill The Messenger" has a certain level of shadowy intrigue and
suspense but possesses one or two comic relief characters its weighty subject
doesn't deserve. Paz Vega plays a flamboyant version of the wife of an
accused drug lord. Her over-the-top display blunts the film's intended
seriousness in places. Part of this is likely Peter Landesman's need to
leaven his screenplay, based on Mr. Webb and Nick Shou's book.
The film has the tenor of a thriller and looks at the forces that closed in on
Mr. Webb as he kept pushing back against mainstream media backlash and
falsehoods about his story. Isolation, mistrust, tension and strains on
Mr. Webb's marriage and family ensued. Ostracism from the newspaper
journalism community snowballed. Threats on Mr. Webb's life increased.
In total, Mr. Cuesta's film is a surface-level introduction to Mr. Webb, the
politics of newsrooms (not a new subject on film given "All The President's Men"
and "The Insider") and the damning evidence of CIA drug-dealing into black
neighborhoods in America. Lots of pertinent, in-depth information about
the drug stories is omitted for time, perhaps politics, and the sake of
conveying a cinematic entertainment that doesn't completely floor its casual
viewers.
"Kill The Messenger", which opened exactly a month ago in the U.S. and has
struggled in limited release, has a procedural documentary feel. Though
pedestrian it nonetheless gets points for at least presenting its important
subject matter on an elementary basis. The subject, atmosphere, and Mr.
Renner's commitment is the asset truly making "Kill The Messenger" worth
watching. Granted, the film scratches the tip of the iceberg but the
impressive cast of actors do good work overall. If nothing else you are
left with a cautionary tale that offers food for thought on a dying (literally)
breed of journalist in America.
Also with: Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Oliver Platt, Rosemarie DeWitt, Andy Garcia,
Tim Blake Nelson, Michael Kenneth Williams, Michael Sheen, Yul Vazquez, Robert
Patrick, Richard Schiff, Ray Liotta.
"Kill The Messenger" is rated R by the Motion Picture Association for language
and drug content. Its running time is one
hour and 52 minutes.
COPYRIGHT 2014. POPCORNREEL.COM. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
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