City of lies

This year the American film festival of Deauville was certainly lacking Hollywood stars but above all seemed to take the direction of becoming a platform to propose films already screened at the Cannes festival but also intended for a late release in France in direct-video that it is the films proposed by the distributor Ace Entertainment (three films in official competition) or City of lies released last March in the United States. Certainly the affair Johnny Depp vs Amber Heard has hardly allowed the film to be released on many screens and its release on video last April by Saban films went unnoticed as this excellent actor is currently suffering from a disastrous image with the major Hollywood studios. Warner Bros going so far as to pay his 10 million dollars contractual fee and exclude him totally from   the third movie of the Fantastic Beasts saga. This is a pity because Johnny Depp remains an excellent actor and we must dissociate his prolific career from his personal setbacks. 

In this case City of Lies shows how much he remains one of the best actors today and his duet here with Forest Whitaker works perfectly. City of lies is a successful adaptation of the non-fiction book LAbyrinth by Randall Sullivan, dedicated to the investigations conducted by the LAPD on the murders of rappers Tupac Shakur and The Notorious B.I.G. The inspired screenplay by Christian Contreras allows director Brad Furman (The Take (2007), The Lincoln Lawyer (2011), Runner Runner (2013), The Infiltrator (2016)).

Former detective Russell Poole (Johnny Depp) spent almost twenty years of his life investigating the murders of Tupac Shakur and The Notorious B.I.G. and Tupac Shakur, and his retirement did not end his investigation, which was so important to him that he put it ahead of his family. This file was also related to the Rampart scandal, the biggest case of corruption within the Los Angeles Police Department. A reporter looking for a scoop, Jack Jackson (Forest Whitaker), approaches her and together they will discover the reason why these murders have not been solved and closed.

Certainly the new film of Brad Furman is a new success to put to the credit of this director whose previous film The Lincoln Lawyer (2011) still remains in memory. We must recognize a real gift to Brad Furman to get the best of his actors. Johnny Depp, far from the eccentric roles that have made his reputation, finds here one of his best roles and is totally invested in this film. This is felt not only by the expressiveness of his character and his complexity. Far from being a true hero in his way of being, this character who really existed has many cracks and the fact that he never managed to let go of a case that haunted him for many years.

City of lies is certainly an excellent film that keeps us on the edge of our seats and above all shows us Los Angeles from a new angle. A violent city in which certain things take place far from the eyes of the population. This city, which seems to be run by a police force at the time with corrupt officers, is really disturbing and shows that American minorities are not treated in the same way. This film proves to be all the more telling at the present time with the Black Lives Matter movement. 

City of lies
Directed by Brad Furman
Produced by Miriam Segal, Paul Brennan & Stuart Manashil
Written by Christian Contreras, 
From the Randall Sullivan's book 
Starring Johnny Depp, Forest Whitaker, Toby Huss, Dayton Callie, Neil Brown Jr, Louis Herthum, Shea Whigham
Music by Chris Hajian
Cinematography : Monika Lenczewska
Edited by Leo Trombetta 
Production companies : Good Films, Lipsync, Romulus Entertainment, VXII 9, Infinitum Nihil, Miramax
Distributed by Program Store (France), Saban (United States)
Release date : March 19, 2021 (United States)
Running time : 111 minutes

Seen on September 5, 2021 at the Centre International de Deauville

Mulder's Mark: