10 Underappreciated 90s Thrillers You Must Watch

Q&A is a film which re-treads the old cops and robbers story but does it in a way you won’t forget. The narrative concerns old fashioned cop, Mike Brennan, played by Nick Nolte in a towering performance. Brennan is a corrupt officer who kills a small time criminal in cold blood and coerces a number of witnesses into testifying it was self-defence. Timothy Hutton plays the young DA who goes up against Brennan and anyone protecting him to bring him to justice.

Brennan is a legend on the force and a genuine old school tough cop. He is also a racist, a homophobe and even more corrupt than initially portrayed. He isn’t quite Harvey Keitel’s Bad Lieutenant but he comes close.

The dialogue in Q&A is excellent and a driving force for the narrative, the supporting cast are also all on form with Armand Assante turning in a career best as drug kingpin Bobby Tex.

Some of the racial and homophobic language may certainly be off-putting but it brings an important theme in the film to the fore. The police are racist to each other, the criminals are equally so, and nobody minds too much. But, when those slurs cross boundaries it becomes an issue. There are conflicts here about fraternity, ethnicity and the different loyalties we feel in areas of our lives.

Sidney Lumet directs with characteristic ease and the story is absolutely riveting. A shame the film seems to have been completely forgotten.