By Matt Mueller Culture Editor Published Oct 14, 2014 at 11:16 AM

Fall is in the air. The temperature has turned cold, the leaves are turning colors and the new releases have turned important. Yep, it must be Oscar bait season, where the quality of a film is measured in gold rather than actual quality. And one of the season’s earliest trophy-minded wriggling worms is "Kill the Messenger," the true story of San Jose Mercury News reporter Gary Webb and the massive story he broke in 1996 – one that would end up sadly breaking him in return.

Judged as awards bait, "Kill the Messenger" won’t likely snag the golden glory it’s looking for. It’s not quite flashy enough. It hasn’t arrived in theaters with enough fanfare. It doesn’t have the right amount of self-importance or gooey warm sentimentality. The odds are good that when Oscar night does roll around, director Michael Cuesta’s modestly fervent film will have already been forgotten, smothered and buried underneath a pile of other gold-digging dramas.

It’s rather a shame because, once you remove the frame of awards season, "Kill the Messenger" is a solid, satisfyingly unpredictable and well-performed journalism drama that – following the lead of "Shattered Glass" and, of course, "All the President’s Men" – often plays like a tense thriller.

A goateed Jeremy Renner stars as the intrepid reporter, hunting down and investigating stories about the escalating war on drugs raging in California far beyond the might of the tiny San Jose Mercury News. He soon stumbles upon the story of his career: Coke dealers using their profits to fund Contra rebels in Nicaragua – all overseen by CIA. After gathering evidence, interviewing drug dealers and lawyers, and heading to Nicaragua, Webb and his editors (Mary Elizabeth Winstead and Oliver Platt) print the story, unleashing national outrage and more than a little praise at Gary’s feet.

The story Webb's career, however, soon threatens to be the end of his career, as the government’s ominous warnings scattered during his investigation – ignored through a haze of concern about the alarming state of the inner cities and his own journalistic ambitions – come to fruition. Shadowy men start sneaking around, and some cases inside, the house. TV stations start shifting and altering the facts of Webb’s original story. Worst of all, higher profile papers from across the nation – with some help from the CIA – begin a smear campaign against Gary, questioning his sources, the reach of his claims and, most incriminating, his personal life, one that comes with plenty of baggage.

Cuesta doesn’t do much to defy expectations with "Kill the Messenger," a realization that comes pretty fast after the opening credits filled with the typical rapid-cut dramatic headlines and news clips. Even if he’s not exactly breaking the mold – and hammering some points unnecessarily – he fills that mold with good stuff throughout, demonstrating why it works in the first place. 

The TV vet (most notably from several episodes of "Dexter" and "Homeland") gives Webb’s descent down the journalistic rabbit hole an efficient sense of urgency – aided by "12 Years a Slave" cinematographer Sean Bobbitt’s adequately gritty, shaky handheld camerawork. Plus, Cuesta and screenwriter Peter Landesman’s sharp, no-frills script excitingly brings the audience into piecing a story together.

Even with drab courtrooms and newspaper offices as the film’s main settings, there’s an inherent excitement in watching somebody hunt down clues, interview secretive leads and eagerly await just the right quote for a story – especially one this conspiracy-drenched and inflammatory. The great journalism movies almost unfold like tense mysteries, and "Kill the Messenger," while not quite up to the level of its esteemed predecessors, provides those kind of thrills.

That’s simply the first half too. The second half amps up the paranoia and conspiracy theory elements, what with the sneaky CIA boogeymen in the night, the public smearing and Webb’s life falling apart. All the while, Cuesta and Landesman keep the tension and the film’s brisk pace up, sometimes maybe even too fast – or at least too montaged – as it’s easy to lose track of the time elapsed (you’d be forgiven for thinking the events are packed into about a month’s time).

Still, the movie and Webb’s story unfailingly keeps your attention, whether it be through some eerily crafted moments of modest paranoia – an extended scene of a shadow walking a bit too closely in a parking garage, smartly fixed on Renner’s escalatingly alarmed face – or tracking Webb’s tragically disintegrating image, a man destroyed by exposing a truth that was easier to push to the side than look in the face.

Speaking of Renner, he’s very good as Webb, the movie’s emotional, weighty core as well our charismatic guide through the conspiracy’s nitty gritty details. Early on, his enthusiasm and obvious intrigue digging into the story is contagious, adding to the film’s energy. Keep an eye on his face during a courtroom scene where he discreetly hijacks a cross-examination, eagerly glancing around as he can’t believe the story unfolding – and that he’s the one on it. Yet there’s a sad weight behind his eyes, one that comes forward more and more as his experience transforms him into a weary and wounded man.

There’s an impressively deep bench of strong actors around him as well, including Winstead, Platt, Barry Pepper, Rosemarie DeWitt, Tim Blake Nelson, Michael Sheen. Andy Garcia and Ray Liotta also show up for a pair of essentially extended one-scene cameos. They all add character, warmth and color to what could’ve amounted to typical bit roles.

The film constantly stands by Webb’s side, meaning some of the story’s and the man’s complexities are left a little wanting. Then again, maybe Webb deserves a movie that fully gives him what reality denied him: a claim to the truth. Cuesta and Landesman even give Webb the rapturous ovation he probably deserved – even if it is revealed to just be a daydream, an illusion popped by tepid polite applause and awkward silence.

It may not win any awards come early next year, but "Kill the Messenger" is still a compelling story well made and well performed. It’s the kind of movie you’ll spot scanning around on Netflix a couple of months from now and remember that, hey, that was a good movie. Maybe nothing special or hugely remarkable, but still a good, strong movie. And that’s most certainly still worth something – even if it’s not a trophy. 

Matt Mueller Culture Editor

As much as it is a gigantic cliché to say that one has always had a passion for film, Matt Mueller has always had a passion for film. Whether it was bringing in the latest movie reviews for his first grade show-and-tell or writing film reviews for the St. Norbert College Times as a high school student, Matt is way too obsessed with movies for his own good.

When he's not writing about the latest blockbuster or talking much too glowingly about "Piranha 3D," Matt can probably be found watching literally any sport (minus cricket) or working at - get this - a local movie theater. Or watching a movie. Yeah, he's probably watching a movie.