Directed by Werner Herzog • 2009 • United States
Starring Nicolas Cage, Eva Mendes, Val Kilmer
Two of contemporary cinema’s most electrifying eccentrics, Werner Herzog and Nicolas Cage, join forces for a thoroughly unhinged pulp fever dream. Not—despite the title—a remake of or sequel to the similarly named Abel Ferrara film, Herzog’s BAD LIEUTENANT unfolds in a neon-splashed, neonoir vision of post-Katrina New Orleans where amoral, drug-addled detective Terence McDonagh (Cage at his most gloriously unrestrained) finds himself teetering on the brink of insanity as he investigates the killing of five immigrants—a mystery that ultimately takes a backseat to Herzog’s wild, hallucinatory flourishes, including an extended, unforgettable “iguana cam” interlude.
Up Next in Neonoir
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The Deep End
Directed by David Siegel and Scott McGehee • 2001 • United States
Starring Tilda Swinton, Goran Visnjic, Jonathan TuckerTilda Swinton delivers a tour-de-force performance as a mother driven to extremes in this stylish and psychologically rich reworking of Max Ophuls’s 1949 noir THE RECKLESS MO...
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Absence of Malice
Directed by Sydney Pollack • 1981 • United States
Starring Sally Field, Paul Newman, Bob BalabanIn America, can a man be guilty until proven innocent? Suppose you picked up this morning’s newspaper and your life was a front-page headl...
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The Big Sleep
Directed by Michael Winner • 1978 • United States
Starring Robert Mitchum, Sarah Miles, Richard BooneRobert Mitchum steps into the gumshoes of detective Philip Marlowe in this bold 1970s reimagining of the Raymond Chandler classic set in England. When Marlowe takes on what appears to be a routi...
