A reporter becomes the target of a vicious smear campaign that drives him to the point of suicide after he exposes the CIA's role in arming Contra rebels in Nicaragua and importing cocaine into California. Based on the true story of journalist Gary Webb.
Jeremy Renner Mary Elizabeth Winstead Michael Sheen Ray Liotta Robert Patrick Andy García Paz Vega Michael Kenneth Williams Rosemarie DeWitt Tim Blake Nelson Barry Pepper Oliver Platt Richard Schiff Jena Sims Joshua Close Yul Vazquez Lucas Hedges Matt Lintz Gil Bellows Steve Coulter Dan Futterman Susan Walters David de Vries David Lee Garver Rhoda Griffis Jen Harper David Alessi Grace Baine Shaira Barton Show All…
Jobb ha hallgatsz, Matar al mensajero, Ο Αγγελιοφόρος Πρέπει Να Πεθάνει, Maten al mensajero, Убить гонца, Secret d'état, Jobb, ha hallgatsz, Matem o Mensageiro, 杀死信使, להרוג את השליח, Wyrok za prawdę, Smrt čmuchala, Убити посланця, La regola del gioco, Eliminați mesagerul, O Mensageiro, Elçiyi Öldür, 告密者, Matar el missatger, 킬 더 메신저, Убий пратеника, Nogalināt ziņnesi, Nutildyti šauklį, 封鎖新聞線, Maten al mensajero (Kill the Messenger), คนข่าว โค่นทำเนียบ
Hungary16
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PortugalM/12
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Sweden
Spain12
France
UK15
Brazil16
ItalyT
Germany12
Hong Kong
Hungary16
Greece
Netherlands12
Brazil
France
Germany
Greece
Hong Kong
Hungary
Italy
Netherlands
Portugal
Spain
Sweden
UK
USA
87th Review for The Collab Weekly Movie Watch
Not to be confused with Killing Them Softly.
I have to say that this film took me by surprise, primarily because, as I quipped at the beginning, I mistook that film for this one. Plus it's always a pleasant surprise to see Jeremy Renner when he's given the chance to showcase his great acting talent (sorry Adrian! He does!), and this is one of those films where his talent is on full display. Renner captures much of the stubborned and driven personality of this journalist searching for this wild truth, making him a sympathetic character almost from the moment he enters the screen. He also provides some of the humor that is…
This is fine, with a first half that's a pretty crackerjack investigative thriller followed by a largely ordinary victim narrative biopic. Renner anchors it admirably, but at one point someone actually says "Some stories are just too true to tell", and you kinda gotta be kidding me. The real story that Gary Webb uncovered is a completely bonkers web of runaway capital and unchecked government power, and a documentary about it would have been ten times more exciting. Just go read "Dark Alliance".
“Some stories are just too true to tell.”
Ten years after their initial collaboration together in 12 and Holding, director Michael Cuesta and Jeremy Renner team up for this political thriller based on the true events surrounding the life of journalist Gary Webb and the investigation that led him to uncover a conspiracy between the CIA and some Nicaraguan drug dealers with the specific purpose of arming the Contra rebels fighting the war against drugs in that country. It’s a shame the film didn’t do well at the box office because Jeremy Renner gives his best performance since The Hurt Locker. He does a convincing job portraying this journalist who during the first half of the film is doing some…
This movie is Jeremy Renner's passion project, and it definitely shows. You can tell by his performance that he put in everything he had into the role. It is by far the best aspect of the film. He really brings his character to life. (Raises it by a whole star even.) As for the plot, it's pretty entertaining considering the actual content. "Based on a true story." "Government and cocaine." "Sadly not Whiplash cause it's too limited." (It was seen after the masterpiece Gone Girl, so it was a tough act to follow.) I'm not quite sure how true to the story the film is, but for what it was, I was thoroughly enjoying it. It has its ups and downs, but it works well and flows nicely. Overall, a Jeremy Renner fueled historical drama, that showcases the dark secrets that the government keeps, in a glorious fashion.
Viewed with the COLLAB.
Jeremy Renner plays RL journalist Gary Webb, a man torn apart at the seems after deconstructing the trust between the American people and its government agencies. I guess one reaps what they sow. Those in power really try to plow his character down, as if he's just another number filling a space. Sequences are of standard normie-core politico fare, back and forth dialogue between recognizable character actors only in a scene or two before they disappear to never be heard from again. A montage of 4 different American presidents amid various political stories is the film's intro, mixing a million different unclear messages in one fell swoop and potentially burying the lede--maybe the point. Renner is great as he bulldozes his way through most scenes. He cultivates a sense of paranoia well. Jokes aside, he's a hero.
P.S. governments, bureaucracies, & conspiracies suck
Politics and Journalism. Two areas that will never able to work well. Politicians swear that everything they do is for the sake of people. Journalists claim that they have an obligation to inform us about all the relevant aspects of the society in which we live in.
Kill the Messenger is an intense film about an important piece of history of the United States that ended up falling by the wayside. Based on the true story of journalist Gary Webb (Jeremy Renner) who made a shocking discovery in the mid 90's. Webb discovered that the CIA was involved in the importation of large quantities of drugs into the United States, which were sold in huge quantities into American ghettos, raising…
"THE HURT LOCKER made Jeremy Renner a star, but it may have made him the wrong kind of star. Hollywood looked at this handsome guy playing a badass soldier and saw an action hero; in the four years since, he’s almost exclusively played tough dudes with guns (or bows and arrows). But those roles have rarely given Renner the opportunity to showcase the sort of character he really plays well, men whose convictions are exceeded only by their compulsions, and whose tough exteriors mask deep vulnerabilities. THE HURT LOCKER wasn’t just a war movie; it was also the story of a man whose commitment to his job as a bomb-disposal expert (and addiction to the thrills it provides) borders on…
An investigative journalism/conspiracy theory film that’s based on a true story. Not big on action but that didn’t trouble me so much. Instead it’s an excellent character study of the lone wolf reporter Gary Webb who broke the story on the CIA’s alliances with drug lords to secretly fund the Contras in Nicaragua. And I have a fondness for any film that shows the dark underside of the CIA due to the countless action films that glorify the CIA and make the agents macho heroes. Most of these are usually propaganda and frankly offensive. In reality, the CIA has a long and shameful history of undermining legitimate governments that don’t serve the capitalist interests or ideology of…
And we're back with another instalment of "America isn't emotionally ready to reckon with its own history and politics". Previous episodes include The Contender (2000), where domestic politics gets the Hollywood treatment and heroic speeches win over previously intractable opposition. Then there is Charlie Wilson's War (2007), where one of the most cynical and most consequential US foreign policy quick-fixes is subsumed by one heroic figure's heroic heroism and let's not even think about the long term consequences because look, it's Tom Hanks! And a third example would be Steve Soderbergh's Traffic (2000) which wants to say something about the cross-border drugs trade but the only trade on offer was substance for melodrama and cliches. Kill the Messenger has some…
I'm going to be upfront and say I have disdain for current politics which actively prevents from engaging in following it with any level of religiosity. What I mean by disdain is having to sift through what people say, what people actually mean behind what they say, and what they actually do. It's a giant undertaking to waddle through the bullshit of all parties involved and come up with an educated conclusion (unless it's as obviously deficient as Brexit or Trump), because it also means contextualising swaths of information across a large chunk of time. And to be honest, I can't be half-arsed. I have a degree of scepticism toward accepting synopses as gospel even if they come from reputable…
I liked the first hour quite a bit which kinda follows the basic journalist working on a dynamite story template but is effectively engaging and well made. Then the story goes public and the reporter played by Jeremy Renner--his life falls apart as rivals seek to poke holes in his story and the CIA might or might not be trying to scare him but are definitely trying to discredit him by revealing things about him that are meant to turn public sentiment against him. The CIA is of course doing this because the dynamite story is about them and how CIA agents aided, abetted. and profited off of crack being sold on the streets and flowing in the inner cities…
One of the first faces in Kill the Messenger we see is Richard Nixon, via stock footage, and such a symbol of deconstructed American mythology couldn't cast more of a spectre and pallor over Michael Cuesta's true life drama if it tried. His film recounts the somewhat lost story of Gary Webb, a long standing reporter for the Los Angeles Mercury who becomes embroiled in a government-shaking scoop that essentially reveals the CIA's complicity in fuelling the modern American drug trade, in order to help the Contra revolutionaries prevent Nicaragua falling under Communist influence in the 1980's. It's a powerful story, based on events that very much took place and a scandal that perhaps became one of the lost US…
