Seeing the Departed, one of Martin Scorcese’s masterpieces in 2006 with Alec Baldwin playing an irate Boston police officer was undervalued. Almost two decades later, a similarly short-tempered Baldwin is behind his agency desk again; hence, it will not necessarily be as captivating to movie buffs. However, Baldwin has just finished his trial case after the Rust shooting incident that killed him in 2021; thus, it can be enough to attract interested people to Crescent City available now.
Another embattled Oscar nominee leads this small ensemble: Terrence Howard, who’s been making the wrong sort of waves in Hollywood of late, partly thanks to bonkers scientific claims made on Joe Rogan’s podcast and beyond. There come periods in actors’ careers where they simply need the work, and the vibe couldn’t be more present in a production like Crescent City. From director RJ Collins, the grim whodunit might fail to stand out among the myriad cop thrillers but Baldwin back in action is always good for some laughs.
The film derives its name from a southern city where this straight-forward tale takes place. Given their recent histories both Terrence Howard and Alec Baldwin are expected to do well at Oscar night if not win anything but Rich Ronat’s script clearly emphasizes Luke Carson (Esai Morales) as having more screen time than any other character. Cast as Brian Sutter who goes about his usual business alongside Howard plays his customary sidekick role. This film seems less about bad men getting even and more so about embracing them such as when Morales becomes its protagonist only reinforcing what is seen in Crescent City.
From what we see here Carson uses unacceptable language towards colleagues while also being promiscuous with women at low class bars and clubs he frequents. So when his team is called up for duty on a sunny afternoon and shown something terrible that happened—a headless body lying inside a vehicle—in no way does he look surprised or concerned.
In an attempt to make his narrative unlike any other edge-of-your-seat cop thrillers that are out there, Crescent City director Collins has chosen to introduce a few striking and hard R-rated moments of sheer violence which shockingly creep under your skin. For instance, the opening sequence shows an anonymous man who arrives at a house party in some mansion where he is handed a drugged drink by a street girl. Ouch! The murders continue as Carson and Sutter struggle to find the culprit. But who is it? A devil worshipper? A sadistic woman?
However, some clues take them to the town church led by well-meaning albeit untrustworthy pastor Michael Sirow though maybe even this is not helpful. In order to cut back on the excessive testosterone levels (by around 5%), Captain Howell (Baldwin) brings in an Australian transplant called Jaclyn Waters (Nicky Whelan). Nevertheless, Carson still mocks her every time despite Carson being interested in her. Waters’ eventual response only makes everything more cringing.
Crescent City is just a little bit off. It has this feeling like a hard-R movie on Cinemax at 3 AM. This film thrills itself by exploiting the lust and violence of certain demographics but in ways which make no sense for the character or have no logic, such as sex between two characters who logically (and emotionally) should not be getting it on together. At least Crescent City loudly broadcasts who it’s for: divorced dads, drug dealers, and frat boys who want something to play in background.
There is some effective tension built up by Crescent City as everyone becomes suspects for these brutal but unexplained murders. Is it someone inside the department? Is that why outside help, in the form of Waters, was brought in? The principal players have their own skeletons in the closet which resurface once mass hysteria across crescent city reaches its tipping point; thus there are actually so many red herrings and fake-outs that you get annoyed. Why hasn’t law enforcement been able to bring the serial killer to justice yet? Carson and Sutter’s boss isn’t happy with them, which lets Baldwin shine with rage in his limited scenes.
To be honest, a ninety-minute movie about Baldwin putting Howard and Morales back into place would’ve been more fun. One of Baldwin’s best scenes is when he spends 99% of his conversation shouting and making fun of corrupt cops with an occasional humorous remark of his own mixed somewhere into it all; it’s like a VOD crime thriller twist on his Glengarry Glen Ross character.
Baldwin is awesome therefore you will find yourself wanting to see more of him particularly considering how stiff both Morales and Howard come across as being here.
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