Tuesday, December 15, 2009

Three Tomatoes are Walking Down a Street...


I post in this shit freely. No rules. Never were, never will be. This is my sweet declaration of freedom, like good ol' TJ, breaking more ground than an earthquake or a really fat person walking in a cartoon. I don't know why I get discouraged by the fact that my blog isn't read by multitudes of people. It's not like I gave a shit when the only one reading my diary back in 'nam was my charlie overseer in the prison camp. I still wrote my things down, so I guess I'll continue. Fuck it, whatever.

Anyways, can't believe I haven't posted a response upon my seeing Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans. I have seen it four times in theaters as I write this if that's any indicator of the supreme level enjoyment this film gives me. Seriously, if you're in OC you have no excuse not to see this... it's playing at the Campus theater in Irvine and the Regency theater in Laguna Niguel. Herzog and Cage throw a most incendiary molotov cocktail into the stale police-procedural drama genre and it is endlessly gratifying. Herzog subverts the genre conventions by completely obliterating them. What maybe begins like your typical crime show or cop movie increasingly becomes a delightfully evil and hallucinatory story. This maybe the first time I've ever seen a POV shot from tripping iguanas or break dancing souls. Or lucky crack pipes.

Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans is easily one of the best films this year. Cage is quite possibly the most fearless actor with the most on-screen presence working in film today. It's a testament to his work that anyone could make that statement after all the shit movies/roles he's done. But when he's on, like he is here, he's fucking on and I'd like to see anyone else try and touch him. This is a film where the plot gradually becomes irrelevant and instead we sit back and bask in the wonderfully rich and crazy world, characters, and perspective of Louisianna, cops and criminals that Herzog and Cage have provided for us.

No comments: