Kathryn Bigelow
Strange Days

Lenny Nero is a former cop who now lives by dealing wire trip clips, disks on which other people's experiences, sensory inputs included, are recorded and can be experienced by someone else through a special player. A few days before the New Year's Eve of 2000, Lenny receives a clip showing the rape and murder of a prostitute friend of his, and therefore decides to start his own personal investigation to find the killer in a Los Angeles set ablaze by ongoing riots of the black population barely contained by law enforcement. His search will lead him to the murder of the influential rapper Jeriko One by two corrupt police officers and the subsequent attempted cover-up of the case.

"Strange Days" is a film with multiple interpretations: anyone watching it can enjoy an excellent metropolitan noir with a sci-fi theme, incorporating all the classic ingredients from shootings and chases to the proverbial fistfights, and even an unsuspected culprit. The viewer who wishes to delve beneath the surface of the film, seeking all the subtexts, will encounter a movie that makes social criticism its core element. It should be noted that "Strange Days" was released in 1995, just three years after the Los Angeles riots that pitted the black communities in the suburbs against the police following the release of the video of the beating of black cab driver Rodney King by four police officers.

With these premises, it is impossible not to see the riots of the '99 Los Angeles as references to the '92 riots, and, therefore, not to read the entire film as a harsh and heartfelt indictment against the police, highlighting without mincing words the unnecessary cruelty used against the rioters as well as against the spiritual leader of the riot, rapper Jeriko One.

The film's charm lies precisely in having these two faces of action and protest film at the same time, which continuously interchange during the narrative, along with the strength of the social critique itself, a force rarely seen in a film intended primarily for a mass audience and which is almost constantly felt throughout the film.

On the front of the flaws afflicting the film, it is fair to point out that when the more "action" side of the film overtakes the critical one, one can notice the presence of some slightly rhetorical moments, such as when the cynical and paranoid protagonist redeems himself by finding love, or when the corrupt officers are arrested by their honest colleagues, clichés that could have been avoided but do not impair a certainly very good and well-made film.