Strange Days (1995)

For some reason, whenever anyone mentioned this movie I confused it with that movie about The Doors and wasn't particularly interested. Luckily after reading up on ACADEMY AWARD WINNER! Kathryn Bigelow for this month's LAMBs in the Director's Chair, I realized Strange Days is actually an excellent, if overlooked, futuristic thriller with a script by James Cameron and the unfortunately-named Jay Cocks. At the dawn of the new millennium, Los Angeles is a dangerous, unstable city prone to riots, shootings, race-based rallies, and hedonistic enterprise. Ralph Fiennes stars as Lenny Nero, an ex-cop now dealing in the illegal drug of the new century: personal recorded experiences that users hook up into their brains, enabling them to see, hear, and feel the memories of someone else, from sexual encounters to high-stakes robberies.

When he's not hanging out in seedy bars selling dreams, Lenny's pining for his ex-girlfriend Faith (Juliette Lewis), a singer who left him for seedy record producer Philo Gant (Michael Wincott). When Iris, a mutual friend, comes to Lenny out of fear for her life claiming Faith is in danger, and is later found dead, he enlists the aid of Max (Tom Sizemore), a wise-cracking PI, and Mace (Angela Bassett), a limo driver who doesn't take shit from anyone. As they dig deeper into the mystery surrounding Iris's murder, they unearth a conspiracy affecting the entire city, and Lenny finds his misguided love for Faith may be his undoing.


Wow, this movie just really goes to so many different, unexpected places. It features a range of inter-connected stories woven together to produce a complex and detail-driven narrative. The premise is a bit fantastical but hey, I'm not asking for a researched, theoretically realistic science-fiction here. It's a thoughtful and imaginative depiction of a near-future situation (though technically the near-past for us sittin' pretty here in 2010), and it doesn't rely on overblown metaphors or political messages. Bigelow's visuals are a combination of flashy and gritty aesthetics with a cyberpunk edge, and there are some cool first-person POV shots for the memory recording playbacks. Everything feels strange enough to be in an unknown era, but real enough to be foreseeable as quite soon, lending an atmosphere of eeriness to the proceedings.

What makes Strange Days truly enjoyable are its multi-layered characters, with every actor putting in an excellent performance. As Lenny, Fiennes is a smarmy but lovable sweet-talker whose charm is off-putting and palpable. Bassett infuses Mace with an admirable ferocity and strength that's amplified by her truly impressive guns and offset by a relatable vulnerability. Her character's awesomeness sneaked up on me, making me appreciate her personality even more. I generally love Juliette Lewis no matter what, and while she's pretty great as the confused singer Faith, her character's seeming inability to stand up for herself was quite frustrating (though I think that was the point). She rocked the musical numbers though, and I was thrilled to see her singing PJ Harvey tunes, which gave me the best idea ever: a PJ/Juliette Badass Lady-Rocker Movie team up! Oh shit!

Strange Days is not without its flaws, of course. It's quite long, and it takes a while for the story to really get going, as so many apparently disparate characters and events need to be set up in the beginning. But because these parts all come together into an interesting and complex whole, I can forgive that lag in narrative. There are also a few too many melodramatic moments, but thanks to the actors' considerable talents, they feel emotionally genuine. Strange Days is at once a violent thriller, futuristic action movie, and dystopian drama welded together with an absorbing gritty aesthetic, complex characters, and decidedly cool soundtrack. Ms Bigelow, you've done it again!

4.5/5

"Rid of Me"- Juliette Lewis (PJ Harvey cover)