Lone Star

Writer/director John Sayles delivers his most accomplished work since 1991's City of Hope in this complex murder mystery set on the Tex-Mex border. Chris Cooper is outstanding as Sam Deeds, a reluctant sheriff investigating the recent discovery of a long buried skeleton. When the bones are identified as former sheriff Charley Wade (Kris Kristofferson), the finger of suspicion tends to point toward the man who took over Charley's job--the late Buddy Deeds, Sam's father, a man whom the town worshiped as a god, but Sam detested. Fighting his own family demons, the town's reverence of his father, and political problems between the races in little Frontera, Sam eventually uncovers more than a few skeletons in this mesmerizing, and sly, Western-cum-social critique. Highly recommended. (R. Pitman)