Costa-Gavras directs Debra Winger, Tom Berenger and John Heard in this thriller where an FBI informant goes undercover into a farming family with ties to the Neo-Nazi movement.

Joe Eszterhas’ salty script makes itself known in the first five seconds. Formally this has the same spine as his Basic Instinct or Jagged Edge or Jade. Is your lover the killer? Are you attracted to them, trying to get close enough to clear them of suspicion or are you seduced as much by the danger as the person? Only it ain’t wholesome like a sexy sex killer this time. They might be a racist terrorist leader of a white power group. Berenger is it at his best here and Debra Winger never made enough like this (see also: Black Widow). She really is great. The third act doesn’t know what to do with itself after some mad All-American Hate sequences where we go fully down the racist rabbit hole. But there’s a strange out-of-sync epilogue that is haunting. Too memorable and prescient to be hobbled by its obvious flaws.

7

Perfect Double Bill: A Stranger Among Us (1992)

You can follow me on Letterboxd here https://letterboxd.com/BobbyCarroll