Spikeopath
Deep Cover is directed by Bill Duke and written by Michael Tolkin and Henry Bean. It stars Larry Fishburne, Jeff Goldblum, Charles Martin Smith, Victoria Dillard and Gregory Sierra. Music is by Michel Colombier and cinematography by Bojan Bazelli.Traumatised as a youngster by the death of his junkie father, Russell Stevens (Fishburne) becomes a police officer. Passing an interview with DEA Agent Gerald Carver (Smith), Stevens goes undercover to bust a major drug gang that has links to high places. But the closer he gets in with the targets, the deeper he gets involved - emotionally and psychologically.A splendid slice of gritty neo-noir, Deep Cover follows a classic film noir theme of a man descending into a world he really shouldn't be part of. This is a shifty and grungy Los Angeles, awash with blood money, single parents prepared to sell their kids, where kids in their early teens mule for the dealers and get killed in the process. A place of dimly lighted bars and pool halls, of dank streets and scrap yards, and of course of violence and misery.The look and tone of the picture is as intense as the characterisations on show. Duke (A Rage in Harlem) knows some tricks to imbue psychological distortion, canted angles, step-print framing, slow angled lensing, jump cuts and sweaty close ups. Bazelli photographs with a deliberate urban feel, making red prominent and black a lurking menace. While the musical accompaniments flit in between hip-hop thunder and jazzy blues lightning.Fishburne provides a narration that works exceptionally well, harking back to classic noirs of yesteryear. As this grim tale unfolds, his distressingly down-beat tone goes hand in hand with the narrative's sharp edges. The screenplay is always smart and cutting, mixing political hog-wash and social commentary with the harsh realities of lives dominated by drugs - the users - the sellers - the cartel, and the cop going deeper underground...Great performances from the leading players seal the deal here (Goldblum is not miscast he's the perfect opposite foil for Fishburne's broody fire), and while some clichés are within the play, the production as mounted, with the narrative devices of identification destruction (hello 2 masks) and that violence begets violence, marks this out as one the neo-noir crowd should note down as a must see. 8/10
PeterMitchell-506-564364
One of the better drug movies has Fishburne who's really deceiving himself, going undercover. His reasons for becoming a cop, are seen at the start, where as a kid, one Christmas Eve, he sees his father shot down, after holding up a liquor store. He made a promise to himself that he would never drink or take drugs. Both promises are broken later on. His assignment (where a lot of other black cops failed the interview in quick cut scenes) for a shady superior-a fine Charles Martin Smith takes him on a journey through the underworld of drugs and it's penetrators. This includes scuzzy lawyer, Goldblum, fun here, also a desperate smooth talking pimp, a cowering slug too, with slick and catchy rhymes. His life is soon cut short while beaten to death by a pool cue from one of the real bad nasties of the show, who later challenges Goldblum to a knuckle game, where Goldblum, loses, bad, we too. feel that stinging and throbbing pain through skin. There's a nice sidestory. Fishburne living at one of these halfway houses, has a beautiful neighbor, a latina girl, a crack whore with a kid, again the message of drugs and it's effects, eminent here in this tight solid actioner. Her desperation and dependency on drugs, manifestly shown when trying to sell her boy to Fishburne, a sort of father figure here, as seen in it's ending too. A good angle I liked. Fishburne too, falls for his beautiful associate, her museum, a front for money laundering. I loved Goldblum in the first establishing scene, here. Fishburne says a line from Scarface, this movie, a reference of dialogue, scenes, clips used in so many other movies. This prompts Goldblum to recite a line, bouncing off of Fishburne's. Goldblum, puts his own funny spin on it, adding another line to it, but then again, Goldblum can be a funny guy. Fishburne keeps working his way up, selling drugs, living bigger and better than he ever has, and feeling so much like s..t for it. He even does his first kill, taking down a bad black dude, who shot down one of his younger female associates, earlier. And so he should, not only for that, but also, for taking an open leak on Fishburne's sleek shoes. He's finally swimming with the big fishes, an Italian Godfather, who's acquaintance is one of ugliness, rips a piece of jewellery from Fishburne's ear, where soon he meets the guy at top. Also too, we have that wonderful actor, Clarence (Mod Squad) Williams, the third, an unrelenting DEA agent, who busts Fishburne a couple of times, another pain the arse, he doesn't need. Fishburne recites a passage to William's in the absence of the latina girl, losing her battle with drugs. The dialogue works to pondering truth in this film, though it doesn't ring more true than in Fishburne's voice overs. Not many films do that. One of the writers here, worked on the Richard Gere movie, Internal Affairs, another tight solid plot movie. Deep Cover is obviously an anti drug movie, where all the baddies get their desserts, including Smith. It's a different and interesting drug movie, if being a movie experience in itself. It's informative as well, as we learn a thing or two about the long term effects of drugs, especially where the brain's concerned. Fresh and something different, Deep Cover certainly is. Don't worry, we do have a car chase, shootouts of adequate proportion, and violence, nasty at times, but minimized as in the use of it, with good performances, all around, especially the young girl.
liquidself2004
As far as I (the "me") am concerned, this is a really top 10 of the decade movie. Fishbourne gives an amazing, stellar performance that served to cement his reputation as a talented, malleable (to be lauded in an actor...) professional. To truly understand the content of this movie, you literally have to be thinking "Shakespearian" to put it in context. That he played Othello after is a rather pleasingly obvious choice. Put together hungry, ambitious actors and actresses, excellent writing that con-temporizes perennial concerns; combine with innovative, just beyond the current accepted edge cinematography; and you get Deep Cover. A deep symmetry and (of) actor sympathy (not necessarily in that order) reveals truths all but concealed by contemporary brusqueness. See the gd thing to appreciate it, and do it late at night. It is truly the sleeper of the last 2 decades; see it and be in on it.
