BAD LIEUTENANT: PORT OF CALL NEW ORLEANS .World Cinema

After RESCUE DAWN, Werner Herzog returns to American genre cinema, this time taking on the mythic, audience friendly framework of the gritty urban cop film. Working from William Finkelstein’s tightly compelling script, Herzog sets the plot in New Orleans, which allows for a few surreal Herzogian touches-decaying buildings, men communing with alligators. But this dark, shockingly funny drama keeps the focus on the title character, Detective McDonough, who scarfs down narcotics to cope with his back pain-making bets his body can’t cover-while neck-deep in a murder investigation Nicolas Cage, 1n one of his strongest performances, invests McDonough with urgency and compassion, and gets terrific support by Eva Mendes, Val Kilmer, Vandee Curtis-Hall and Brad Dourif. Hoving positioned himself, in deed and word, as the ultimate Hollywood outsider, Herzog suddenly earns comparison with masters including Don Siegel, Nicholas Ray and Sidney Lumet.