Rent Narc (2002)

If Only All Cop Thrillers Were As Good As This! - Narc review by GI

This is a great cop thriller, uncompromising, gritty and a real thrill ride. Jason Patric plays Nick Tellis, a traumatised undercover narcotics detective, who has been suspended for 18 months after he accidentally shoots a pregnant woman. He is offered a way back to duty by agreeing to help in the investigation of the murder of another undercover cop. Nick is reluctant but he finds he has to work with a fellow detective, the unpredictable and violent Henry Oak (Ray Liotta) who is out to find and kill the murderers. Tellis has his own demons from his time working as a 'Narc', where he developed a drug dependancy that nearly drove him to madness. There's plenty of plot twists and the story has no spare fodder, everything you see is connected, and director Joe Carnahan films with a washed out look giving the film a bleak and highly realistic feel visualising Detroit as a grim, unwelcome and sorrowful place reflecting the deep chasms of emotion in the characters. This is a remarkable crime story, it's violent and tough but it's presented as a serious drama without recourse to cliché resulting in a riveting film. I highly recommend this so if you've never seen it then seek it out, you'll not be disappointed.

Liotta is stratospheric magnificence in an incredible, low-budget & brilliantly written masterpiece - Narc review by TB

In film & TV, there is often an actor who has that one role which defines them, irrelevant of whatever other highly celebrated parts they go on to play. Occasionally, someone will have more than one, such as Daniel Day-Lewis or Robert De Niro, but these are often the exceptions to the rule (to be clear, I'm talking about roles which people will immediately think of when this actor is mentioned, not always their best performances.) For Ray Liotta, that film is Goodfellas, which for any actor to have on their resumé is a wonderful calling card. It was also technically the 1st film I saw him in (I say technically, because I played Vice City way before I watched Goodfellas.) In that film, he was perfect: brilliantly cast & truly no-one else could have played Henry Hill with the mixture of innocence, threat & violence that he brought to it, all wrapped up in that distinctive New Jersey accent.

But I will argue to this day that although Goodfellas is amazing, his magnum opus is a performance in a tiny, micro-budget thriller which he also produced & spent years getting off the ground after multiple failed attempts, which adds to the reverence I have for Liotta.

Nick Tellis (Patric) is a destroyed, mentally obliterated & horrifically emotionally scarred cop. Years of deep undercover work, where he lived around & took drugs with criminals/addicts, culminated in a shocking & heinous act of violence which totally broke him. 18 months later, Tellis is summoned by his superiors, who want him to investigate the murder of another undercover cop, Michael Calvess. Although initially resistant to this, Tellis agrees on the condition he is promoted to a desk job & that he is assisted by Detective Henry Oak (Liotta,) a highly unstable cop who nevertheless has an extremely high conviction rate. The two men then investigate Calvess's murder, as well as learning to work together.

Whilst Jason Patric is amazing, the only thing most people will remember from this film is Liotta. Every single element of his performance, in a genre which even when this was released (2002) was already bloated with the sheer volume of cop films, is sensational. Known for being slim-built, here he has bulked up to become this unstoppable force, a hulking bear of a man with a boiling rage. When you combine this with his sheer charisma & presence, the results are mind-blowing. He has only 1 goal: bring to justice the killer/killers of his close friend. He will stop at nothing until these vermin are caught. But the genius of the writing (from the magnificent script by Joe Carnahan,) in no way makes him a one-dimensional angry cop. Through quiet, contemplative moments, we see a man who has experienced his own horrendous pain & loss, channelling that into fighting crime. Liotta has never been better.

In terms of production, again the film-makers do wonders with almost no budget. We are thrown into a harsh & bitterly cold Detroit, full of criminals & violence, in a totally authentic look at policing the poorest & most desperate parts of America, totally forgotten by the government. The chases, including the blistering & frantic opening scene, are as good as any top-tier action film. The script/story is perfectly paced, constantly pulling the rug out from under us, whilst always keeping us gripped. And as the final scene finishes, the sadness & horror is almost overwhelming.

This is perfection, a gut-punch of a film which proves that budget is in many ways irrelevant when it comes to quality, which I would also argue made it as good as it is, considering it HAD to be got right. Over 90 minutes, you are taken on a journey of horror, hope & trauma. And at the centre of this is Ray Liotta, in not only his greatest performance, but one of the best I have ever seen. Thank you for your incredible work over the years. RIP