City of Lies

Obsession, conspiracies and police corruption converge in director Brad Furman's dogged true-life procedural. Johnny Depp stars as a retired homicide detective who believes the investigation into the 1997 murder of rapper Biggie Smalls was subject to LAPD cover-ups. Forest Whitaker plays a journalist whose wariness thaws as Depp presents his case. Inspired by Randall Sullivan's non-fiction book LAbyrinth, screenwriter Christian Contreras makes a meticulous, if convoluted case for Depp's stance, but he oversimplifies elsewhere by skirting the era's rap rivalries as well as saddling Whitaker with a generic character arc. Furman (The Lincoln Lawyer) handles the material respectfully and makes taut work of a bank-robbery sequence, but his failure to fully enlighten or engage extends to a detached performance from Depp.