CRESCENT CITY movie poster | ©2024 Lionsgate

Rating: R
Stars: Terrence Howard, Esai Morales, Nicky Whelan, Alec Baldwin, Reema Sampat, Madonna Akhtar
Writer: Rich Ronat
Director: RJ Collins
Distributor: Lionsgate
Release Date: August 16, 2024 (theatrical, digital, VOD)

The title of CRESCENT CITY turns out to be like that of CHINATOWN – it’s not where the action is set, just the site of a significant event in the lives of several characters. (The film has nothing to do with either New Orleans or the fantasy book series with that name.)

Instead, we are mostly in Little Rock, AR, where a serial killer is leaving mannequin heads next to decapitated bodies. Little Rock Police homicide detectives and longtime work partners Brian Sutter (Terrence Howard) and Luke Carson (Esai Morales) are on the case.

Sutter is having disturbing flashbacks to Crescent City; Carson is just generally hot-tempered. They are both perturbed when their captain (Alec Baldwin) insists that the two detectives add Tulsa homicide detective Jaclyn Waters (Nicky Whelan) to their team. Jackie is originally from Australia, and can keep a cool head in a tough situation; Luke thinks she’s hiding something.

The victimology doesn’t tell anyone much, since the killer targets both men and women between approximate ages twenty and forty. There is a possibility that there are clues at the church that Brian attends with his wife Elena (Reema Sampat) and their little daughter, Mila (Madonna Akhtar). Besides the usual religious ceremonies, the church is used for various anonymous addiction groups; at least one member of Sex Addicts Anonymous has vanished.

The trio of investigators strategize and squabble as the killer continues to rack up the murder count. The situation is complicated by the fact that there are other kinds of crimes and big secrets being covered up by quite a few people.

Writer Rich Ronat has fun giving his characters dialogue riffs, so that they have background and color. There’s also a lot going on, so that we are genuinely trying to guess who did what.

Director RJ Collins sets a suitably noir visual palette, conveying a sense of urban rot and despondency. He gets good performances from the cast, with especially distinctive work from Baldwin, who imbues his hassled-from-all-sides police captain with real inner life.

But there is an aspect of the CRESCENT CITY that qualifies as mystery malpractice. This is less a spoiler than a public service announcement. In the opening sequence, we see from the overall narrative perspective – that is, not from a specific character’s point of view – one of the murders occur. Except this turns out to be not exactly what happened.

It’s one thing to shoot a scene to get the audience to focus on the wrong thing in order to surprise us later, or to have a scene that comes from what an unreliable narrator is relating. It’s another thing altogether to put in a major clue without context as an empirical event that isn’t empirical, and isn’t what occurs. (It doesn’t get better when we finally realize what it’s supposed to be that we saw; it’s hard to believe anybody can be that drugged.)

A smaller order of business is how an Australian cop wound up in an American interstate police task force. We wait for this to be revealed as a plot point, but no, it’s just an unlikely story element. It’s not a cheat, but it’s a little distracting in a movie where we’re chasing hints like terriers going after tennis balls.

CRESCENT CITY isn’t quite the memorable sweaty fever dream it seems to want to be, but it works as a well-acted crime thriller that (mostly) legitimately pulls this way and that.

Related: Movie Review: DEADPOOL & WOLVERINE

Related: Movie Review: ROB PEACE
Related: Movie Review: SATRANIC PANIC
Related: Movie Review: BORDERLANDS
Related: Movie Review: CUCKOO
Related: Movie Review: MICKEY HARDAWAY
Related: Movie Review: TRAP
Related: Movie Review: THE BEAST WITHIN
Related: Movie Review: DOCTOR JEKYLL
Related: Movie Review: #AMFAD: ALL MY FRIENDS ARE DEAD
Related: Movie Review: STAVRE ACRES
Related: Movie Review: THE LAST BREATH
Related: Movie Review: MIDNIGHT TAXI
Related: Movie Review: ODDITY
Related: Movie Review: THE ABANDON
Related: Movie Review: THING EARS SHALL BLEED
Related: Movie Review: LONGLEGS
Related: Movie Review: THE INHERITANCE
Related: Movie Review: LUMINA
Related: Movie Review:SOUND OF HOPE: THE STORY OF POSSUM TROT
Related: Movie Review: THE IMAGINARY (YANEURA NO RAJÂ)
Related: Movie Review: MAXXXINE
Related: Movie Review: DESPICABLE ME 4
Related: Movie Review: THE MOOR
Related: Movie Review: A QUIET PLACE: DAY ONE
Related: Movie Review: A SACRIFICE
Related: Movie Review: THE BIKERIDERS

Follow us on Twitter at ASSIGNMENT X
Like us on Facebook at ASSIGNMENT X

Article Source: Assignment X
Article: Movie Review: CRESCENT CITY

Related Posts: