Directed by Werner Herzog. 121 minutes.
Starring Nicolas Cage, Eva Mendes, Xzibit, Fairuza Balk, Jennifer Coolidge, Val Kilmer, Brad Dourif, Michael Shannon, Shawn Hatosy, Irma P. Hall and Vondie Curtis-Hall. Released by First Look International.
It’s a wonder, really, that director Werner Herzog and actor Nicolas Cage have never worked together prior to their collaboration on the deliriously strange and shockingly funny The Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans, a riff on, but certainly no remake, of Abel Ferrara’s 1992 powerhouse downer Bad Lieutenant. If these two films share anything in common, it’s that their directors allow their leading men – in Ferrara’s case, a ferocious Harvey Keitel and, in Herzog’s case, a loony Cage – to fully inhabit their characters at intense levels. This is, without a doubt, Cage’s best performance in several years and probably his weirdest since 1989’s gloriously peculiar Vampire’s Kiss. It’s the type of fearless acting that could lead to a career dive bomb or high praise. I’ll go with the latter.
In the picture, Cage’s New Orleans lieutenant Terence McDonagh injures his back whilst rescuing a soon-to-be-drowned inmate during Hurricane Katrina. During a period of several months, he first begins to take vicodin to kill the pain before later turning to cocaine, crack and various other assorted drugs, including heroin in – if you can believe it – one of the film’s funnier punch lines. McDonagh is called in to investigate a particularly grisly quadruple homicide during which an African family was killed execution style in what appears to be a drug related crime.
During the course of his investigation, McDonagh’s drug addictions are occassionally a hindrance, but more often a boost to his live wire police methods. In his down time, he cruises New Orleans night clubs and busts young, attractive drug users and basically blackmails them into giving him what he wants – drugs, the occasional sexual favor. The first of these sequences is particularly insane, but also screamingly hilarious as Cage near forces a sexual favor from a club-goer as he appears to channel Dennis Hopper from Blue Velvet during his attack on Isabella Rossellini. His fellow officers shake their heads in disapproval at his antics but, hey, the guy delivers, most notably during a scene in which he wanders into an impoverished home and single-handedly walks out with a dangerous criminal without using his backup officers.
The proceedings get increasingly bizarre as they move along. McDonagh is in deep with local loan sharks after having gambled away what little money he makes on football games and his relationship with a prostitute (Eva Mendes) raises some eyebrows. Added to his troubles are an investigation a mini-cartel led by rapper Xzibit, his relationship to his alcoholic father and his father’s beer-swigging new wife (Jennifer Coolidge) and a “client” who roughs up Mendes and then threatens to get his mobster pals after the drugged-out lieutenant as he continuously mutters, “Whoa.”
There are some scenes here that are destined to be classics: the aforementioned shakedown of the drug-buyers for sexual favors, a sequence in which he applies an electric shaver to his face and threatens two grandmothers in a home for the aging, a complete freakout on a laid-back pharmacist and Cage’s order to shoot a dead carcass because that man’s “soul is still dancing,” which is then followed by, well, you just have to see it. Herzog’s obsession with creatures – monkeys in Aguirre, crabs in Invincible, a chicken in Stroszek, etc. – is certainly on display in Bad Lieutenant, most notably some fish, an alligator and two iguanas, who show up in acid-head close-ups during one of the scene’s most loony moments. The film is nothing if not memorable.
This film will not appeal to everyone. Some might find it distasteful, others completely off-the-wall. At times, it’s both. But Herzog is a virtuosic filmmaker, one of the best living directors as well as one of the greatest of all time. He takes a routine policer and makes it into something that is, well, anything but routine. The film depicts addiction as frightening, but manages to still be witty and hilarious. The city of New Orleans is seen less as a tragic wasteland following Katrina and more of a place where anything dangerous can happen, and often does. Cage is often thought of as a talented actor who has no problem cashing in a paycheck by continuously starring in blow’em up action movies but, when given a ripe role, he explodes onscreen. This is one of his most intense and flat-out asylum-ready performances. Believe me when I say he gives it his all. One way or another, I’d imagine most audience members will have a strong reaction to this film.