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Rampart
A raw and uncompromising story and an unhinged performance from the leading man are the primary ingredients that make 2011's The Rampart work.
From the director and co-screenwriter of The Messenger comes the story of Officer David Douglas Brown, a hardened, uniformed LAPD officer of 24 years who has a reputation of bending the rules to the point of breaking, not to mention the drinking and womanizing we expect from such a character. He has two daughters from two different women and they all live together in the same house. Not long after scaring the bejesus out of his latest trainee, Officer Brown finds himself at the center of a Rodney King-type incident that happens to get caught on video and might completely destroy his career.
What starts out as a rehash of films like Bad Lieutenant and Training Day goes to another level as we see the officer's entire career get peeled away layer by layer taking Officer Brown to a level of desperation we never see with Harvey Keitel's character and before he gets taken out the way Denzel's character does. Officer Brown is intelligent and well-spoken and, most importantly, knows the law and is aware of exactly what his superiors in the Rampart Division of the LAPD can do to him. We know there is more than meets the eye with this character when the first time in the film he is greeted by his older daughter (future Oscar winner Brie Larson), she refers to him as "Date Rape", a greeting from a daughter to a father that definitely made the imagination run wild. I was impressed when the story behind the moniker comes out and it was nothing like I imagined.
The whole incident that spurs the deconstruction of Officer Brown's career is just as aggravating because the video that the world saw did not show the entire incident, which was a very interesting storytelling choice because it allows the audience to weigh in on exactly what happened and whether or not Brown was justified in what he did and an argument for both sides is credible.
Director and co-screenwriter Oren Moverman also shows a real stylish hand with a movie camera...there is a lot of inventive camerawork here, giving this film an almost voyeuristic quality. There are a lot of uncomfortable closeups of the central character where the camera almost seems to be looking inside the character's head to show us what he's thinking.
Moverman's impressive cast delivers the goods, headed by Woody Harrelson, an actor who Moverman really seems to understand. He gets another performance from Harrelson that is vivid and explosive. There are some impressive star turns along the way from Sigourney Weaver, Ned Beatty, Robin Wright, Cynthia Nixon, Anne Heche, Ben Foster, and Ice Cube. Bouquets as well to Jay Rabinowitz' film editing, Jarvier Bennesar's sound editing, and Dickon Hinchcliffe's music. A rough cinematic ride that's worth it if you have the stomach for it.
A raw and uncompromising story and an unhinged performance from the leading man are the primary ingredients that make 2011's The Rampart work.
From the director and co-screenwriter of The Messenger comes the story of Officer David Douglas Brown, a hardened, uniformed LAPD officer of 24 years who has a reputation of bending the rules to the point of breaking, not to mention the drinking and womanizing we expect from such a character. He has two daughters from two different women and they all live together in the same house. Not long after scaring the bejesus out of his latest trainee, Officer Brown finds himself at the center of a Rodney King-type incident that happens to get caught on video and might completely destroy his career.
What starts out as a rehash of films like Bad Lieutenant and Training Day goes to another level as we see the officer's entire career get peeled away layer by layer taking Officer Brown to a level of desperation we never see with Harvey Keitel's character and before he gets taken out the way Denzel's character does. Officer Brown is intelligent and well-spoken and, most importantly, knows the law and is aware of exactly what his superiors in the Rampart Division of the LAPD can do to him. We know there is more than meets the eye with this character when the first time in the film he is greeted by his older daughter (future Oscar winner Brie Larson), she refers to him as "Date Rape", a greeting from a daughter to a father that definitely made the imagination run wild. I was impressed when the story behind the moniker comes out and it was nothing like I imagined.
The whole incident that spurs the deconstruction of Officer Brown's career is just as aggravating because the video that the world saw did not show the entire incident, which was a very interesting storytelling choice because it allows the audience to weigh in on exactly what happened and whether or not Brown was justified in what he did and an argument for both sides is credible.
Director and co-screenwriter Oren Moverman also shows a real stylish hand with a movie camera...there is a lot of inventive camerawork here, giving this film an almost voyeuristic quality. There are a lot of uncomfortable closeups of the central character where the camera almost seems to be looking inside the character's head to show us what he's thinking.
Moverman's impressive cast delivers the goods, headed by Woody Harrelson, an actor who Moverman really seems to understand. He gets another performance from Harrelson that is vivid and explosive. There are some impressive star turns along the way from Sigourney Weaver, Ned Beatty, Robin Wright, Cynthia Nixon, Anne Heche, Ben Foster, and Ice Cube. Bouquets as well to Jay Rabinowitz' film editing, Jarvier Bennesar's sound editing, and Dickon Hinchcliffe's music. A rough cinematic ride that's worth it if you have the stomach for it.