
“Crescent City” serves as a common nickname for the city of New Orleans, Louisiana. Secondly, “Crescent City” happens to be the popular title of a fantasy novel series. But I’m not sure what these two have to do with the new “Crescent City” film, which is a complex mystery crime film that has been filmed in and around Little Rock, Arkansas. So what does the phrase “Crescent City” mean when used in this movie? I have no idea. Not that it does not exist in the movie somewhere. But when dealing with a film that is as clumsy and challenging as this, it is likely to be overlooked.
R.J. Collins, the director, seeks to do something different with the film, which features an assortment of characters and is ideally a prequel to a bigger film. But there is only so much he can do, just like his cast. Further, screenwriter Rich Ronat appears to be too ambitious regarding his film scripts, and we eventually end up with more twists than we desired. The result is that his script pretty much alienates coherence and plausibility, leaving Collins with more characters and plot pieces than he can handle.
The city of Little Rock is still in shock after three gruesome murders occurred, where all the victims had their heads substantially violence cut off, and the killer’s trademark was left at every crime scene, mannequin wo Parts. As a result, the two most flawed detectives in the Little Rock police department are assigned to the case, Bryan Sutter a family man with a controversial past (Terrence Howard), and his violent & uncouth partner Luke Carson (Esai Morales).
The case has frustrated their captain even more so after another body drops (Alec Baldwin who takes checks) hires in Detective Waters Jaclyn (Nicky Whelan). Yes, although she’d be burdened by being ‘Tulsa, Sydney’, a homicide detective. Neither Brian nor Luke comes out as supportive to an outsider joining their ranks but they have to obey orders anyway. Soon the three of them find themselves calling a shady local pastor (Michael Sirow) for an interview, probing a satanic dating website, and dealing with an internal affairs investigation concerning yet another case.
These points in and of themselves would suffice for a story that works. But the film tries to manage so many setups, coverups, and betrayals that they’re impossible to manage. The film does have an identity crisis. One second it’s a police procedural, another a whodunit, and in the following minute a family drama. All the while the movie is trying really hard to be a standard crime thriller. To be honest, it’s excessive.
Howard and Morales are fine actors who are more than capable of carrying the film and here they certainly put in the effort. At the same time, Little Rock presents an extraordinarily new location. Because at the end of the day, ‘Crescent City’ gets obliterated by its aspirations. It appears that all ensemble cast members have some hidden agendas, many of their explanations are dubious, and overall, several facts go without dispute. In the end, this is what is spent in corralling it all, such that other more useful parts suffer. ‘Crescent City’, as such, is a feature film available on VOD.
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