The Bad Lieutenant – Port of Call: New Orleans

Armed with an unabashedly over-the-top yet thoroughly entertaining performance from Nicolas Cage, The Bad Lieutenant – Port of Call: New Orleans effectively overcomes an almost egregiously convoluted storyline to establish itself as an engrossing, downright campy moviegoing experience. The film, which bears no connection to 1992’s Bad Lieutenant, follows New Orleans homicide detective Terence McDonagh as he finds himself hooked on painkillers after suffering a crippling back injury, with the bulk of the proceedings subsequently detailing the doped-up cop’s efforts at solving the murder of several African immigrants. There’s really never a point at which William Finkelstein’s screenplay is able to wholeheartedly draw the viewer into the mind-numbingly nonsensical storyline, yet, as becomes clear almost instantly, the film remains engaging from start to finish thanks entirely to Cage’s go-for-broke work as the title figure. It’s in McDonagh’s interactions with the movie’s supporting cast that The Bad Lieutenant – Port of Call: New Orleans excels, as the character’s increasingly belligerent sensibilities ensure that he’s generally either going off on drug-fueled tangents or saying things that are hilariously inappropriate (ie in terms of the latter, McDonagh harasses a couple of old ladies who may or may not have some information on a subject and eventually tells them, “you’re the fucking reason this country is going down the drain!”) The one-man-show atmosphere that ensues isn’t remotely as problematic as one might’ve assumed, and it’s worth noting that director Werner Herzog generally does a nice job of mirroring McDonagh’s unhinged mental state by emphasizing progressively off-kilter visuals (eg McDonagh’s imagined confrontation with a couple of lizards). The end result is a surprisingly compelling piece of work that’ll undoubtedly (and deservedly) earn itself a cult following in the years to come, with Cage’s consistently captivating performance effortlessly compensating for the movie’s myriad of less-than-enthralling attributes.

*** out of ****