Hey, everyone. Capone in Chicago here.
Holy sweet Jesus dipped in molasses. OK, I had no freakin' idea that this film was going to kick quite this much behind. But knock your ass into your shoes is exactly what happens when you take a familiar title, turn it into a franchise (this is no remake, re-imagining or retread of the Abel Ferrara BAD LIEUTENANT), and hand the reigns over to visionary Werner Herzog, who really has to go out of his way to make a bad movie these days. The biggest question mark from me wasn't whether Herzog could make something out of seemingly nothing, but whether Nicolas Cage was ready to put crappy movies behind him. I was actually a fan of Knowing and World Trade Center, but they weren't the slam-dunk vehicles Cage saw during his ADAPTATION-MATCHSTICK MEN-LORD OF WAR-THE WEATHER MAN streak. Now, during that time, Cage also made his biggest hit, NATIONAL TREASURE, a movie I loathe as much as its sequel. But clearly during this span of time, Cage was in sync with audiences and critics alike.
I'm not in any way implying that BAD LIEUTENANT: PORT OF CALL NEW ORLEANS is going to catch on as a popular hit--I really doubt it will--but it's fascinating filmmaking, and Cage is at his loopy, manic best as Terence McDonagh, a New Orleans cop who has trouble with gambling, drugs, sex and just general living. In the end, this film will confirm every horrible thing you've every thought about society and the way people treat each other, while also giving you three or four more reasons to hate the world and all who occupy it for the time being. It's also one of the funniest movies of the year. Maybe funny is the wrong word, but I know I was laughing a lot at some of the film's more deviant moments. And there's a roster of some of the most interesting actors working today, including a few I haven't seen in a while doing great work in this story about the bottom feeders who occupied New Orleans in the time shortly after Hurricane Katrina hit. I'm not sure that William Finkelstein's original screenplay is anything special, but Herzog and his crew of game actors breathe a rich and pungent breath into this B-movie tale of a cop investigating a mass murder that takes him deep into the drug culture of his city.
After an establishing scene in which McDonagh and his partner Stevie (Val Kilmer) rescue a prisoner from his jail cell filling up with Katrina flood waters, we see a clearly pain-riddled Cage (from a back injury he sustained during the rescue) popping pain meds, placing bets with his bookie (Brad Dourif), meeting his hooker girlfriend (Eva Mendes) to do coke, stealing drugs from the police evidence locker guarded by a cop (Michael Shannon) who owes him favors, and shaking down club goers for whatever cash and drugs they might have on them. The guy is clearly a model citizen, and barely takes in oxygen without trying to find an angle on something.
When a case involving an apartment filled with five dead members of a Senegalese immigrant family, McDonagh uses the case to get more deeply involved with a drug operation headed by a kingpin named Big Fate (rapper Xzibit). Cage's character does not give a shit about five dead immigrants, but he will make everyone around him believe that he does if it gets him access to more money and more drugs. Not surprisingly for a Werner Herzog film, the best moments in Bad Lieutenant have very little to do with the primary story. There are countless side trips we take that are endlessly interesting. Every scene at McDonagh's fathers house is fantastic, with Tom Bower as the father and Jennifer Coolidge as the rarely sober stepmother, who is actually a calming influence on her stepson. There are a couple interesting scenes involving Fairuza Balk as a highway patrol cop and old friend of McDonagh's who he meets investigating a car vs. alligator traffic accident. And then there's the already legendary iguana cam shot that I will not even attempt to explain, except to see that they are freakishly cool.
And good luck trying to get the image of Cage pinching off the oxygen supply to an old lady in an assisted-living home while calling her the C word, or holding a big-ass gun to the head of her nurse. The first thing that you must realize about BAD LIEUTENANT: PORT OF CALL NEW ORLEANS is that any impulse you have to laugh while watching it should be embraced. There is zero doubt in my mind that Cage is playing this for laughs even in the film's scariest moments. He's a frayed electric wire ready to shock anything that dares get too close, and watching his gradual self-destruction is an honor and a privilege. So here's the upshot: if you claim to be bored with formulaic Hollywood movies, this is a film custom made for you. Nothing about this movie is conventional, acceptable or easy to watch, but, man, is it insanely entertaining. I don't know who to heap the most praise upon--Herzog or Cage--so allow me to bow to them both and hope they make many more films together. They clearly belong together. And together, the two capture New Orleans so completely, you can actually smell the dank, moldy pockets that existed after Katrina. Just thinking about it gives me the vapors. Just go see this movie if you really need a cinematic experience that will take you way the hell out of your comfort zone and wake you the fuck up.
-- Capone
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