Bad Lieutenant at StudioFilmClub

God bless Werner Herzog. God bless Nicholas Cage. And God bless, Bad Lieutenant, a film about an amoral anti-hero who, in his depravity, reaches a sublime kind of morality and goodness.

Nicholas Cage is perfect as a sadistic cop who rapes, steals, murders and snorts cocaine, all while trying to keep things (including his relationship with his hot prostitute girlfriend) together.

I need not say much about the plot, except point out that it's post-Katrina New Orleans and that Herzog, that master of composing shots with perfect ratios, is not concerned with postcard-inspired images of the city. There's a tale in this itself, and in the film's important opening and closing scenes.

All of it is very different from (but loosely similar to) the original classic Bad Lieutenant  starring a sexy Harvey Keitel where we think Keitel is really a good man at heart battling conscience. Cage, on the other hand, is clearly a twat. Examine how he stands in his ever so slightly over-sized tailor-made suits, how he stalks down a corridor or sits in a car eyeing his young, drunken prey exiting a nightclub. He's not really seeking redemption. But some is coming his way, anyway.

Screens Thursday at StudioFilmClub, Fernandes Industrial Estate, Laventille. Doors open 7.30pm