***** (out of 5) The esteemed Roger Ebert observed that Nicolas Cage’s performances are directly proportional to the quality of film he’s in. In ‘Bad Lieutenant’, Cage is brilliant and on fire, and the film manages to keep up with him all the way.

From his start as an ironically hero cop to a bent – literally and behaviorally – one, Cage puts on an acting master class and takes the audience on a riveting ride. Hilarious, dangerous, self-destructive, quick-thinking, melancholic and introspective, he switches gears like a well-serviced Mercedes. It is a performance of fearless abandon by one of the most talented and consistently underrated actors of his generation. 

Maverick Werner Herzog is his safety net, and together they concoct a delirious character piece that couldn’t have been executed by anyone else. The writing is solid, the cinematography excellent and the big, brassy score pitch-perfect, but this is all Herzog and Cage, all the time. It is a marriage made in movie heaven, a delirious and fascinating character study, a bold and black comedy, and the best film of 2009.