cinemoz.org

Movie: Rampart

• Director: Oren Moverman
• Writers: James Ellroy, Oren Moverman
• Stars: Woody Harrelson, Ben Foster and Sigourney Weaver
• Release Date: January 2012
• Run Time: 108 min
• Genre: Action, Crime, Drama

The most corrupt cop you’ve ever seen on take in.

Set in 1999 Los Angeles, veteran police detective Dave Brown, the last of the renegade cops, works to take care of his family, and struggles for his own survival.

Review: A brilliant deconstruction of the corrupt cop genre that crawls deep inside its archetypal male antihero to expose the vulnerabilities that guide him – like an inverse French Connection. If you are amongst the legions of filmgoers who lament the decline of American cinema since the golden era of the 1970s, this is for you. Moverman’s filmmaking is at once unblinking and modest, giving the film a documentary like quality that grounds the genre elements in a heartbreaking emotional reality. In the tradition of William Friedkin, Sydney Lumet, Bob Rafelson, Hal Ashby and Robert Altman – a probing filmmaker builds a temple around an iconic actor, setting the stage for one of the greatest performances of his career. Dave Brown serves as a fascinating counterpoint to Popeye Doyle, Frank Bullitt and Alonzo Harris. Woody Harrelson may irrevocably win his Oscar for this one.