Deep Cover

Director: Bill Duke

1992 / 107min / DCP

Laurence Fishburne gives a matchless performance as a cop still burdened by the childhood memory of his father’s crippling addiction whose straight-arrow life is derailed when he’s recruited into undercover work investigating the Los Angeles cocaine trade. Duke has all the action-thriller twists and turns down cold, but adds an element to this violent neo-noir that few commercial directors would, situating his story in a fleshed-out social world that considers the generational legacy of poverty and the racial politics of the War on Drugs. Add to this some over-the-top gallows humor courtesy camp heavy Jeff Goldblum, and you’ve got the makings of a true tour de force.

Part of '90s Noir