Lone Star (1996)

Occasionally, immediately after watching a film, I’ll go through again, trying to grasp quiet details I might have missed on the first pass. This was one of those films. I’m tempted to put all of John Sayles’s filmography on The List after this, granted many of them already are. On its surface, this is a murder mystery regarding who killed a corrupt Texas sheriff many years ago. That story is well done and compelling. But there’s also a lot more: reflections on Texas itself and its history, intersections of many cultures in a community, threads that run through familial lines, and secrets that people hold on to even when it causes harm to others. The cast is incredibly stacked (Chris Cooper, Elizabeth Pena, Kris Kristofferson, Joe Morton and smaller roles for Matthew McConaughey and Frances McDormand) and really do the job in pushing the story along, but it is the writing with its interwoven bits of past and present which is really striking.

Oscar Nomination: Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen