Race, sex, booze and scandal all come crashing together in Oren Moverman's "Rampart," a scalding slow burn portrait of an LAPD cop circling the drain of his professional career and personal relationships, and embodied by Woody Harrelson, its one of the strongest performances of the year.
If you haven't been hearing much about "Rampart," better start paying attention because a very strong push is happening — and rightfully so — for Oren Moverman's film that presents '90s Los Angeles as a sun-choked place where morals can't find any shade. Harrelson plays a cop with the interesting nickname of "Date Rape" Dave, whose sideways approach to law and order soon finds him in a tailspin. It's a pretty electrically charged character piece, so don't let this trailer fool you into thinking it's some kind of rock 'n roll, "Training Day"-esque baddie cop movie. It's a lot more nuanced (and rewarding) than that. A pretty great cast surrounds Harrelson in this including Sigourney Weaver, Anne Heche, Ice Cube, Cynthia Nixon, Ben Foster and in a small role, Steve Buscemi.
"Rampart" will have a one week Oscar qualifying run starting on November 23rd, before going in to wide release on January 27th. Be sure to check it out. Trailer below. [Apple]