Kill the Messenger

Gary Webb was a journalist who alleged the import of cocaine into the US was an income for the CIA-backed Nicaraguan Contras. Turned into crack-cocaine, it reached epidemic proportions in US cities in the ‘80s, with Webb suggesting the Reagan administration sanctioned this. His newspaper dropped the story and he never again worked as a mainstream reporter. He was found dead in 2004.

Jeremy Renner stars as Webb in Kill the Messenger and he plays the doomed journalist with the mix of energy and frustration expected from a man whose career, family and life are threatened.

Renner and director Michael Cuesta (Homeland, Dexter) weave a convoluted, fascinating and edgy tale that gives no consolation to conspiracy theorists who feel governments will stop at nothing – and that one way to obstruct them is a free press. (MMu)

***1/2 /5

BY MICHAEL MUIR