This drama, about a corrupt, drug-addicted cop post-Katrina, directed by Werner Herzog, is not for beginners. Herzog is an auteur, like Woody Allen or Robert Altman, and I wanted to be sure to see his latest work, but I later realized that I am a beginner, as is Jack, and hadn't seen anything of his, though I had heard great things about Aguirre, The Wrath of God (1972), Nosferatu the Vampire (1979), Fitzcarraldo (1982), Grizzly Man (2005), and Rescue Dawn (2006) (the last two are on my netflix queue, which has almost 200 movies on it). The Abel Ferrara movie, Bad Lieutenant (1992), is another one about which I have heard good things but did not see. Read here what Ferrara and Herzog commented about the connection between the two. Nicolas Cage (won Oscar for Leaving Las Vegas (1995), nominated for Adaptation (2002); also great in Birdy (1984), Moonstruck and Raising Arizona (both 1987), Wild at Heart (1990), Matchstick Men (2003), The Weather Man (2005), others) fully conveys the derangement of the titular lieutenant with a back injury, holding one shoulder higher than the other for probably 115 of the movie's 122 minutes. In addition to the talented Cage (you all know he was born Nicolas Coppola, nephew of Francis, right?), Herzog assembled a talented supporting cast, including Eva Mendes (Training Day (2001), Hitch (2005), the bombshell in The Women, and more), Val Kilmer (I liked Top Gun (1986), The Doors (1991), Tombstone (1993), Batman Forever (1995), and Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (2005)) who gets little to do here, independent film regular Fairuza Balk (Gas, Food Lodging (1992), Things to Do in Denver When You're Dead (1995), Almost Famous (2000), more), Brad Dourif (One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975), Blue Velvet (1986), Lord of the Rings II-III (2002-3), HBO's Deadwood), and 19 year old Denzel Whitaker (no relation to Forest Whitaker nor Denzel Washington, he made a splash in The Great Debaters (2007)). My favorite was seeing Jennifer Coolidge, best known for comedy (Legally Blonde I-II (2001 & 3); the Christopher Guest oeuvre: Best in Show (2000), A Mighty Wind (2003), For Your Consideration (2006); and Soul Men, to name a few) playing it straight as an alcoholic.
This is an intense movie-going experience with creative cinematography, for which Peter Zeitlinger is nominated for this year's Independent Spirit Awards. The soundtrack is by a favorite composer of mine, Mark Isham (My One and Only, The Times of Harvey Milk, more Isham details are in the latter post), but I wasn't particularly moved by this one. Many people have loved this movie (Roger Ebert 4 stars out of 4 (major spoiler alert for the Ebert review), 7.2 out of 10 on imdb, 75% on rottentomatoes) but we were more in the camp of Rolling Stone's Peter Travers (warning, this review contains minor spoilers) who gave it 2½ stars out of 4. Despite the lack of a Humane Society announcement, we are hopeful that no iguanas nor alligators were harmed in the making of this motion picture.
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