Friday, March 9, 2012

Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans (2009), Werner Herzog.

Doing the Nosferatu hunch.

Do you think Herzog just let Nicolas Cage loose to say whatever he wanted?  Cage plays a cop, addicted to painkillers and coke after an on-the-job injury, who's been tapped to lead a multiple murder investigation.  His chief asks if he thinks he's up to the task but after that, no other characters really question the hallucinogenic reality they're swimming in, Cage's own druggy perspective.  Nobody questions his actions, no matter how implausible they are.  Cage walks with a bent figure, oddly immobile face, his hair hanging on his scalp at an unnatural angle.  I know this isn't the hot punk from Valley Girl anymore, but dude doesn't even look like the age-denying, hair-dying Nicolas Cage we know and love.

I loved this and found a lot of it insanely funny.  Moments of absurdity are calmed by segments in which animals appear.  A fighting fish trapped in a cup, an alligator looking over an accident scene - all mesmerizing.  The movie begins and ends with people underwater, aquatic life sliding by unconcerned by the human story around them.  Do fish have dreams?

Iguana-cam.  Iguana's head is blocking Val Kilmer, another once-hot 80s casualty.

Multitasking.  I'm driving, I'm trying to locate my hooker girlfriend in Missouri, I'm protect a teen witness, I'm about do coke off the steering wheel and there's this happy go lucky golden retriever breathing on my neck!  

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