Crescent City
Crescent City
It was also a less appreciated, nevertheless remarkable, section of the film when one saw Alec Baldwin, who was nominated for an Academy Award, portray the role of an en enraged Boston policeman in The Departed. Almost 20 years later, of course, Baldwin does come back to the agency’s desk, with nearly the same appeal of a hot-headed cop, but the final result won’t, in the offensive manner to classic cinema, sound in the same way for the fans of this art lung. Baldwin is fresh off his criminal trial tied to the fatal Rust shooting in the year of 2021 however so perhaps that would be enough for inquisitive people to watch Crescent City which is available right now.
Leading this small ensemble is another troubled Oscar nominee: Terrence Howard, who has recently managed to paddle the wrong end of Hollywood’s boat, partly due to some outrageous pseudo-scientific statements on the Joe Rogan podcast and other venues. There come periods in actors’ careers when they really need the shot and this feeling could not be more evident in a project like Crescent City. From director RJ Collins, the dark murder mystery might not be able to be remembered amid all the other men in blue action dramas but it is a bit of fun to see Baldwin back up and about.
The title of the film is named after the southern township that provides the setting of the clichéd story. Everyone’s eyes must however be on nominees Howard and Baldwin based on the twists in their tracks lately, however the script by Rich Ronat appeared to have had underground cop Luke Carson Esai Morales butcher for one of the leading roles with the most action. Howard assumes his customary role of Brian Sutter who is the second in command to the leader. With Morales playing the lead role, and with the plot of Crescent City surrounding his character, many would argue that, this is not a film against bad men, it is a film for bad men.
Morales revels in what Carson uses in his moods and it’s quite the annoying misogynistic coliguous, giving colleague abusive or offensive talking down or having sex with a lot of the women he picks up in the cheap dive and other bars and clubs he visits a lot. And it isn’t shocking that he stares obliviously because alarmists laws don’t apply to the scenes where his crime scene team is taken to this horrendous setting in broad daylight; looking at a perfectly severed head lying in the stomach of a car.
One way to escape shortcut-laden gung-ho systemic violence stories that most other Kill the Crooks assassins are surely wondering is how Crescent City director Collins narratives his tale – by coming up with the most improbable R-rated sequences of violent behavior that disturbingly entertain you out of the blue. The film begins as there is a party in a mansion where a stranger enters and a whore gives him a drugged drink and then nonchalantly cuts his throat. Oof. The series of murders continues and it is the task of Carson and Sutter to get the bastard. But who is it? A Satanist? A sadomasochistic woman?
Finding some particular clues of interest, the aforementioned two explore an establishment belonging to the local congregation headed by a good but zealous pastor (Michael Sirow), although it seems that may be a wild goose chase too. And Captain Howell (Baldwin), Carson and Sutter’s superior, puts an Australian transplant Jaclyn Waters (Nicky Whelan)-who’s brought to ease the above average ratio of testosterone levels (by 5% approx) to good use. That does not mean, however, that Carson does not try and humiliate her all the time, in spite of Carson apparently being quite fond of her. The manner in which Waters eventually responds only makes things worse.
In between the relationship of Carson and Waters, the exaggerated masculinity, the protracted sex sequence, Crescent City has a weakness for cringe. It is as if one was watching an R rated trashy movie on the Cinemax at 3 a.m. The movie works on the theme of tapping into the lust and violence allowable for certain sectors of the audience but makes no sense for the storyline or the characters, such as sex between two people who are logsically (and emotionally) never going to touch each other. At least Crescent City screams at the target audience – struggling with divorcees dads, drug pushers and jock type men who need things on screen during their work.
Crescent City does develop some effective tension as everyone comes under suspicion for these barbaric, violent, and unexplained murders. Is it someone within the department itself? Is that why Waters was called in from outside? Everyone, including the main characters, has skeletons and those skeletons resurface once the mass hysteria in Crescent City reaches a critical point but it results in so many fake red herrings and plots that it gets tedious. How trouble is it for the authorities to determine the identity of the serial killer and to catch him? Carson and Sutter’s superior keeps a lot of negativity thus letting Baldwin and his short appearances in the film show rage.
To be honest, a 90 minute feature with Baldwin putting the stupid Howard and Morales images to rest would have made a more fun final product. The most entertaining part of the movie is probably Baldwin’s scenes since 99% of the dialogues there is about him barking harsher and cracking fun at other corrupt cops with a normal dose of humor from him. It is L.A. crime-gone-VOD in Glengarry Glen Ross East.
Baldwin is fantastic and I know that one will want to see more of him, considering Morales and Howard appear more rigid and one-dimensional here. We understand that both of them have better to offer, particularly Morales who has brushed on crime and police genres for decades taking on interesting characters from at least two genres (NCIS: LA, Ozark, Chicago PD). Oh well, moving on to the next one, Lionsgate. Crescent City is now available at the theaters, on demand and digital.
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- Genre: Crime, Featured, horror, Thriller, Top Rated Movies, Upcoming Movies
- Country: United States
- Director: RJ Collins
- Cast: Terrence Howard, Esai Morales, Nicky Whelan, Alec Baldwin, Michael Sirow, Weston Cage, Anjul Nigam, Rose Lane Sanfilippo, María Camila Giraldo, Reema Sampat, Eduard Osipov, Nikita Kahn, Dani Druz, Rocky Myers, Corbin B. Pitts, Vince Jolivette, Ali Bair,
