Werner Herzog
2009
91 minutes
This film is a Herzog film with a highly impressive cast. Michael Shannon. Willem Dafoe. Chloe Sevigny. Udo Kier. Grace Zabriskie. Brad Dourif. Even Dave Bautista is in it, somehow. It's inspired by a real life case in which a disturbed man murdered his mother with an antique sword after supposedly becoming obsessed with an ancient Greek play (guess which one). As expected, Herzog is eager to dive into the psychology of what would make a man commit such a crime.
This film also has the vibe of an over the top "ripped-from-the-headlines" CSI Miami episode--but, again, directed by Werner Herzog. Brace yourself for some combination or subset of little people, lizards, alien visitors, hypnosis, travel footage from exotic locations, chickens and ostriches and flamingos, etc. The overall effect of this is like when you leave a bunch of shallots uncovered in your refrigerator too long next to your leftover cupcakes and every cupcake has a noticeable shallot taste.
One of the characters leaves a basketball in a tree in a park, which is later taken up at the end by a young boy as a symbolic passing of the torch or something. Later you will go on to try to remember if this scene was in Boyz n the Hood or Menace II Society or New Jack City or something similar, but no. It was in this Herzog film. You'll also forget whether this film or Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans is the one with the random lizard on the table, or whether it was both films. This film is guaranteed to leak into your other films, so keep the DVD case tightly sealed with plastic wrap while not in use.
Time to choose something different: