BAD LIEUTENANT: PORT OF CALL NEW ORLEANS (2009)—Do Iguanas Dream of Electric Fish?

Cinema of Cruelty (Movies for Masochists)

This week The Cultists Present Werner Herzog’s Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans (2009). Technically (kind of, maybe) a remake/sequel/spin-off of Abel Ferrara’s 1992 film Bad Lieutenant, Herzog’s film remakes someone else’s the only way Herzog can: by openly never having heard of Ferrara’s film, nor caring. Instead, with a screenplay written by the man who brought the world the glorious television musical madness of “Cop Rock,” front-lined by the "Neo-Shamantic" master of polarizing accessibility, and helmed by a man who self-admittedly has no interest in the genre of crime films, Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call-New Orleans, is a crime film like no other. So sit back and munch on some prescription opioids as we head down south for a film that to some is a confusion of celluloid, to others a dark comedic masterpiece of satire, but above all else, a love letter to iguanas.

Episode Safeword: “mammals”