Film: Strange Days

Director: Kathryn Bigelow
Genre: Sci-Fi
Source: USA (1995)
Rating: R
Location/Format: Netflix Instant Watch
Grade: C

Kathryn Bigelow has had such an awesome 2000s resurgence with The Hurt Locker and Zero Dark Thirty that I was excited to watch a semi-sci-fi future (set just four years after the films 1995 release) from her, but I ended up a little disappointed. Strange Days isn't bad, in fact it's got a lot of future noir elements that are really interesting, and by the end of the film there are some great visual touches that show a director really finding her footing. But I just didn't engage with it like I wanted to.

Partly it's just that it felt so 90s. I know, I know, it's a movie from the 90s set in the 90s, so what am I talking about? But it didn't age as well as it could have. Juliette Lewis just goes in and Juliette Lewises up the place, and she typically leaves me a little flat, since she delivers most of her lines (in most of her movies) like a stoner in need of a ride to Taco Bell. I'm not even sure what that metaphor means, but she didn't work for me here. Fiennes is better, but the pseudo-noir babble he's spouting feels just too hammy. Maybe this is supposed to be subtle comedy? Is that what I missed? Lenny's lines like, " You can trust me, 'cause I'm your priest, I'm your shrink, I am your main connection the switchboard of the soul. I'm the magic man. Santa Claus of the subconscious . . ." Just . . . no. It's too cheesy to work. 

I like the idea of "Look how close we are to dystopia." And I like a lot of the actors here. And the main device, the mini-disc recording device that allows you to record your whole sensory experience and/or live/feel/watch someone else's moments is really clever. But the movie as a whole just left me a little flat. Bigelow has found her feet, for sure, but I feel like here she's just tossing as much into the movie as she can to see what sticks. Maybe that's the James Cameron influence crowding her out.

In the end Strange Days has got a little style and a little substance, but not enough of either to really pull me in.

Alternate Film Title: "Angela Bassett's Dreadlocks Bring You To Your Knees"