To The Break of Dawn, Baby!
May 17th – May 23rd
Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans — Oh, Werner Herzog. You strange and brilliant man. This movie plays like some drug-induced dream. If things don’t always seem to add up, they seem to be perfectly placed within a tripped-out alternate version of reality. Perhaps this cop story is really science fiction. Maybe the lizards brought about Hurricane Katrina as the first step in their attempt at world domination.
Nicolas Cage is brilliant. I think. I certainly don’t think I’ve ever seen drug-induced insanity look so fun. The entire cast from Eva Mendes to Brad Dourif seem to be having a blast. And I never thought I’d see Fairuza Balk as a state trooper. But there she was. At once in breeches and boots and then just boots.
I just bought a Werner Herzon-Klaus Kinski box set that I have yet to delve into. I very well might need to add this one to my collection. It was a hell of a lot of fun.
The Informant! — Matt Damon can go from action hero Jason Bourne one minute to schlubby bio-tech engineer Mark Whitacre the next minute. And he makes it look so effortless. Working with frequent collaborator Steven Soderbergh, Damon makes this compulsive liar actually teeter towards the sympathetic. Whitacre doesn’t seem so much diabolical as mentally unbalanced. I also liked all the stand-up comedians in small roles…from Joel McHale to The Smothers Brothers to Patton Oswalt. As if the farcical nature of these real-life events could be doubted. I first heard about this story from a This American Life episode, which I would recommend along with this film.
My favorite Werner Herzog is definitely “Werner Herzog reads Where’s Waldo” on youtube.
Not entirely related, but I do really like that the This American Life TV series is available streaming on Netflix.
Yeah…I’ve noticed that. I saw the first season back when it aired. I really need to check the other episodes out. There aren’t that many. But my queue keeps getting longer. I need more time in the day!!!