Wolff rating: GOOD
Plot summary: A slow burn look into the ugly past of a little Texas town.
Biased, pithy comments: Every character has a history and a story, and it's revealed elegantly and slowly. This is a story about murder and betrayal, but not cartoon or comic-book or penny-dreadful; this looks at the reasons why people kill and why they hide their actions. It also centers, like many stories about border towns, on the bizarre and deeply-set racial relations between Texans, Mexicans, and any other racial group you might need. A few lines now and then get nearly preachy, and certainly there are a few contrivances (though not usually of plot; mostly of word), it is still a solid film. Watch it.
How many times I have seen it: x1
Starring: Chris Cooper, Elizabeth Pena, Joe Morton, Matthew McConaughey, Kris Kristofferson, Ron Canada.
Directed by: John Sayles