99 Days

Unflinchingly grim, this police noir story shows L.A. descending into hell. Random attacks by a machete-wielding killer are panicking the South Central ghetto and giving the Crips and Bloods an excuse to go gunning for each other%E2%80%94while a ghoulishly cynical radio host cheerleads the violence. LAPD detective Antoine Davis is all too familiar with machete slayings because he was forced to be a child soldier during the 1994 civil/tribal war in Rwanda, when the Hutus attempted to exterminate all Tutsis. Later adopted into an American family, he wants to believe he is safe from that horror, but his calm outlook begins to unravel as the scenes of brutality in front of him are interrupted by memories of the atrocities he participated in. Casali's smart, full-flavored script is as dense with details as a prose novel. Donaldson's art initially looks stiff and flat, but by the end it has become hauntingly convincing, too, as the ghosts from Antoine's past intrude into his present. A harrowing, compelling look at what human beings are willing to do to each other. (June)