“This fine and fraught movie, from 1996, by the writer-director John Sayles, boasts a knotted narrative style, a pressing melancholy, and a keen sense of place. The setting is Frontera, a small Texas town on the Mexican border, once policed by Sheriff Buddy Deeds (Matthew McConaughey) and now overseen by his son, Sam (Chris Cooper). Sayles shifts between the two eras with gracious ease, linking them with an old crime—the unsolved killing of Buddy’s predecessor, Charley Wade (Kris Kristofferson), who held sway through bigotry and corruption. Thanks to Kristofferson’s scary and unyielding performance, the murder mystery becomes the core of the film. Elsewhere you can sense the strain as Sayles works away at the generation gaps, introducing an Army colonel (Joe Morton) and a local schoolteacher (Elizabeth Peña) who are both bowed down by family problems. By the end, you’re grateful for the movie’s weight and substance; you feel that you’ve been put through something serious.” – Anthony Lane, The New Yorker One of the great films of the last 30 years. (1996, 135 min.)
