Review: Kill the Messenger

Set in the mid-90s, Jeremy Renner plays Gary Webb, a small newspaper journalist working for the San Jose Mercury News. Webb receives a tip suggesting that Nicaraguan drug cartels sold a shitload of crack cocaine in the US in the 80s (to fund weapons in their war effort), and that the CIA were in bed with them or at least letting it happen. And that, kiddies is how the L.A. crack epidemic got started. Yay! Webb ventures to Nicaragua to interview imprisoned drug trafficker Norwin Meneses (Andy Garcia), and before long he’s getting the OK from boss Oliver Platt and editor Mary Elizabeth Winstead to do a three part story. And that’s when the fit hits the shan, with Webb pissing a whole lotta dangerous and powerful people off, and putting the lives of his wife (Rosemarie DeWitt) and kids in danger, whilst those with great power also seek to discredit him professionally. Paz Vega plays a gangster’s moll who initially gives Webb the tip-off, Barry Pepper and Tim Blake Nelson play opposing lawyers, Michael Kenneth Williams plays an imprisoned crack dealer, whilst Michael Sheen and Ray Liotta play frightened characters who have attempted to investigate this scandal prior to Webb. Gil Bellows plays a CIA spook who tries to intimidate Webb and threaten him and his family. That’s a scuzzy-looking Robert Patrick getting busted by the cops in the film’s opening scene.

 

Although it peters out towards the end (did they run out of money?), this 2014 true story has an irresistible premise, and a particularly stinging coda that explains why you’ve probably never heard of this truly shocking true story. Directed by Michael Cuesta (director of the lame horror flick “Tell-Tale”, EP of TV’s apparently brilliant “Homeland”) and scripted by Peter Landesman (writer-director of “Parkland”, apparently about the JFK assassination), this is one of those films that brings an already fascinating story that it’s almost impossible to fuck it up. You’ll be constantly saying to yourself: This shit really happened? Jesus. It’s really shocking stuff (especially when a rival newspaper, represented here mostly by Richard Schiff’s editor get involved in the smear campaign against Webb. Disgusting!), if not exactly surprising, for some of us more cynical folk perhaps. The question is, who should feel more ashamed that this story was lost in the shuffle, the media for focussing on something else or us for being consumers of frankly less newsworthy but sensational stories? That’s what you’ll be left to ponder here, despite the fact that the film for the most part is concerned with a CIA scandal. That’s because the story turns from what journo Gary Webb was investigating to what happened to him once his story was published and the CIA retaliated. Your jaw may just drop.

 

Jeremy Renner was a producer on the film and obviously believed in the project. He’s always been a talented actor (even in the otherwise uneven “Dahmer”), and is ideally cast here as a crusading journo and frankly not great human being. He and Rosemarie DeWitt are a good match on-screen, even if the latter’s character is only a hair more complex than the ‘nagging wife’ cliché. None of the supporting cast get a whole lot of screen time, but most make the best of their minutes. Tim Blake Nelson (where the hell has he been?) and Barry Pepper do good grunt work as two very different lawyers on two very different sides. Oliver Platt is an easy sell as Webb’s cautious boss, and the lovely Mary Elizabeth Winstead manages to be luminously beautiful and charismatic whilst presumably attempting to do low-key character work here and not get noticed so much. That girl has got ‘it’ and at some point someone is going to find the right vehicle for her to let ‘it’ out all over the screen (“Scott Pilgrim vs. The World” has come closest but not enough people saw it). The seriously hot Paz Vega, meanwhile reminds us she’s still around, and immediately impresses in a small but important role. Wasn’t she set to be somebody a while back? I guess it didn’t take for some reason. Personally, I think playing a small-time crack dealer in a much larger conspiracy is well beneath the talents of Michael K. Williams, but a terrific Andy Garcia almost walks off with the whole thing in an unsubtle but colourful character part, and there’s a spooky, late innings cameo by a haunted-looking Ray Liotta. He may not be the most consistent actor out there, but every now and then, Liotta reminds you of just how powerful he can be on screen.

 

A shocking true story that frankly can sell itself, this is nonetheless a very well-acted film. Better than the likes of “Fair Game” and “Nothing But the Truth”, though it does lose momentum towards the end, and it’s no “All the President’s Men” (The story itself kinda is on that level of fucked up corruption, however). Boy, do you get a kick in the guts at the end, though. It’s not a perfect film, but it deserved a lot more publicity, which is sadly ironic when you think about it. You might have to seek this one out, it seems someone doesn’t want it to be well-known. Renner is terrific here, as is Garcia, and you’re left with some real food for thought.

 

Rating: B-