A 90s noir that touches upon everything wrong with America but kind of feels like didn't really commit to fully explore that. From what I've read it's commendable that such a film on this scale with a black protagonist being an undercover cop was made at that time. Maybe that is the reason a lot of it felt like it wanted to be even darker but compromises on being happy with the boundaries it stays in. It almost feels like the script was heavily censored so that they don't want it to look like they aren't afraid of/to criticize a lot of stuff but making sure not to go overboard as to actually explore the root causes. The way the drugs are kept in circulation using the people who want to stop it the most, all the while the real players always in control on both sides is clearly drawn out here but just doesn't spell it out. Similarly, there are so many things that are explored here that are not completely utilized in the narrative. Both Fishburne and Goldblum were fantastic and quite different from what I've seen them in before. The music and cinematography were great even though I had to watch it on a bad screen. Even though I really loved a lot of aspects of it, there's a lot of it that just makes me think this could've been so much better and a lot more hard-hitting if they would have chosen to.
Review of Deep Cover
