Strange DaysWhat do New Year's Eve and a time bomb have in common? In Strange Days, they're both a countdown to an explosion of mayhem and chaos. Strange Days is a tech noir thriller made in 1995 about a dystopian "near future" Los Angeles on the eve of "2K" (i.e. the year 2000), where riots and armored police are an everyday presence in the streets. Ex-vice cop, Lenny Nero (Ralph Fiennes), peddles illegal memory tapes--other peoples memories--recorded through a cerebral wiring device called a "SQUID". When someone unknown leaves a "blackjack" (read: "snuff") recording for him, showing the rape and murder of a mutual friend of his and his ex-girlfriend turned rocker, Faith (Juliette Lewis), Lenny quickly finds himself spiraling deeper into a conspiracy that could threaten the whole city.
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Like most science fiction--especially the kind that depicts a dark, "could be" future--Strange Days is a social commentary at its core, using the presence of "futuristic" tech like the MiniDisc-shaped cassettes (and, more importantly, its illegality) to illuminate something more profound about our society. These cassettes are a stand-in for other actual contraband, made illegal for seemingly arbitrary reasons, a symptom of a totalitarian government disconnected from the people's interests. The proposition that this technology is illegal for a reason has influenced law-abiding citizens, like Lenny's friend, Lornette "Mace" Mason (Angela Bassett) She barely tolerates Lenny's illicit activities, because when he was a cop, he was very kind to her and her son in a time of need, and she has developed feelings for him she keeps hidden. To Mace, Lenny's indulgence in memories is no different than a drug addiction, and she sees where his self-destructive spiral ends. Lenny continues to obsess about his former love, Faith, who has dumped him for popular--if sleazy--record producer, Philo Gant (Michael Wincott), who is as coldly acrimonious to Lenny as Faith is. Lenny's new life as a memory peddler consists of such unsavory pastimes as hiring a "performer" to produce pornographic memories to sell to others on the street. Alternately, Lenny will go through his supplier, the nervous and aptly named "Tick" (Richard Edson), for footage of other felonious content--like armed robbery. Lenny operates by his interpretation of a moral code, and thus will not have anything to do with blackjack clips, or any other violent content. Lenny sees the SQUID as a recreational outlet; he gets "high on his own supply", reliving his own memories with Faith, over and over. Lenny represents both of the arguments about "drug use"--for and against; his life has clearly not been improved by his addiction, and his obsession has only blinded him to Mace's interest in him. Conversely, it could be argued that it is Lenny's choice to make for himself--his rebellion against (or escape from) a tyrannical world--and he isn't hurting anyone in his exploration by altering his own perspective. Along with the metaphorical commentary about drug use, Strange Days also explores the topical debate about racial profiling and abuse of authority. In the wake of the 1992 Los Angeles riots--following the contentious verdict acquitting LAPD officers on assault charges of Rodney King--racial tensions were heightened, in California and elsewhere. Strange Days extrapolates this palpable tension, and depicts a city where there are always cops in riot gear, and where the fires have only continued to surge in intensity. Early into Strange Days, it is revealed that the most profitable performing artist under Philo Gant's label--a "raptivist" known as "Jeriko One" (Glenn Plummer)--was shot and killed. This sets the stage for events mirroring the "Rodney King riots" in the film, a tonal chord which resonates with the rest of the story, especially when Lenny begins to understand the greater conspiracy lurking in the shadows on the eve of the millennium.
Although commercially unsuccessful upon release, Strange Days is an ambitious film by director Kathryn Bigelow, with a story by her then-husband James Cameron. Strange Days boasts an ensemble cast embodying distinct cyberpunk archetypes that would feel right at home in a novel by William Gibson. In fact, the look and feel of Strange Days is similar to other Nineties-era sci-fi films, made at a time when computer technology was a bold, new frontier, and the intricacies of it still an arcane unknown. This accounts for why much of the tech looks "retro" by today's standards, such as the cassette deck on which Lenny plays back his SQUID memories. Other visual motifs recall similar films like Johnny Mnemonic (originally written by Gibson) and Hackers, both also made in 1995. Like Strange Days, these films reveal the kind of naive inquisitiveness of Hollywood to try to market the appeal of the cyberpunk subculture to mainstream audiences, using the near future setting as a backdrop. On the other hand, it is also an opportunity for filmmakers (like Bigelow) to revisit paradigms and tropes commonly found in film noir-era classics, putting a sleek, futuristic spin on it. In essence, the plot of Strange Days is a detective story--like The Big Sleep--with multiple twists and turns throughout, ramping up about half way in. Much of Strange Days involves creating the surprisingly claustrophobic world of Los Angeles, two days before the end of the millennium. Lenny drives around from place to place, hocking his wares, while nervously fidgeting with his radio and stuffing his face, all while police brutality and fires rage on the the city streets. The only apparent refuge from the urban chaos is within ostentatious nightclubs, which ironically emulate the violence outside. Lenny seeks out these locales because it gives him an excuse to spy on Faith, who delivers intense performances on stage while wearing little more than a mesh negligee, belting out lyrics like a punk rock femme fatale. The way characters look is crucial when it comes to understanding their motivations; Lenny's flashy suit and shaggy hair always seems in disarray--like his life--while Mace's hair is literally wound too tight on her head, bound in braids. People in Strange Days sometimes conceal the illegal SQUID device under a wig, amplifying the irony about hair being a metaphor for peoples' motives. This is also sometimes used to secretly monitor someone else--like an invisible "wire" used in surveillance; it is also implied that this was the original purpose of the SQUID. The secret monitoring and the presence of an overbearing police state, the predominance of "drug-like" mood altering agents, and even the reveal of a larger conspiracy at work in the shadows infuses Strange Days with a serious dose of escalating paranoia. This reflects Lenny's mindset--itself a metaphor for the mindset of a hyper-stimulated culture, speeding toward the future at increasingly dangerous speeds, waiting for the inevitable crash.
Recommended for: Fans of a cyberpunk thriller about a dystopian near future, taken from a mid-Nineties perspective. The constant threat of chaos and ubiquitous hard rock music makes the film a pulpy, sci-fi detective story with an infusion of MTV and topical social issues.
Although commercially unsuccessful upon release, Strange Days is an ambitious film by director Kathryn Bigelow, with a story by her then-husband James Cameron. Strange Days boasts an ensemble cast embodying distinct cyberpunk archetypes that would feel right at home in a novel by William Gibson. In fact, the look and feel of Strange Days is similar to other Nineties-era sci-fi films, made at a time when computer technology was a bold, new frontier, and the intricacies of it still an arcane unknown. This accounts for why much of the tech looks "retro" by today's standards, such as the cassette deck on which Lenny plays back his SQUID memories. Other visual motifs recall similar films like Johnny Mnemonic (originally written by Gibson) and Hackers, both also made in 1995. Like Strange Days, these films reveal the kind of naive inquisitiveness of Hollywood to try to market the appeal of the cyberpunk subculture to mainstream audiences, using the near future setting as a backdrop. On the other hand, it is also an opportunity for filmmakers (like Bigelow) to revisit paradigms and tropes commonly found in film noir-era classics, putting a sleek, futuristic spin on it. In essence, the plot of Strange Days is a detective story--like The Big Sleep--with multiple twists and turns throughout, ramping up about half way in. Much of Strange Days involves creating the surprisingly claustrophobic world of Los Angeles, two days before the end of the millennium. Lenny drives around from place to place, hocking his wares, while nervously fidgeting with his radio and stuffing his face, all while police brutality and fires rage on the the city streets. The only apparent refuge from the urban chaos is within ostentatious nightclubs, which ironically emulate the violence outside. Lenny seeks out these locales because it gives him an excuse to spy on Faith, who delivers intense performances on stage while wearing little more than a mesh negligee, belting out lyrics like a punk rock femme fatale. The way characters look is crucial when it comes to understanding their motivations; Lenny's flashy suit and shaggy hair always seems in disarray--like his life--while Mace's hair is literally wound too tight on her head, bound in braids. People in Strange Days sometimes conceal the illegal SQUID device under a wig, amplifying the irony about hair being a metaphor for peoples' motives. This is also sometimes used to secretly monitor someone else--like an invisible "wire" used in surveillance; it is also implied that this was the original purpose of the SQUID. The secret monitoring and the presence of an overbearing police state, the predominance of "drug-like" mood altering agents, and even the reveal of a larger conspiracy at work in the shadows infuses Strange Days with a serious dose of escalating paranoia. This reflects Lenny's mindset--itself a metaphor for the mindset of a hyper-stimulated culture, speeding toward the future at increasingly dangerous speeds, waiting for the inevitable crash.
Recommended for: Fans of a cyberpunk thriller about a dystopian near future, taken from a mid-Nineties perspective. The constant threat of chaos and ubiquitous hard rock music makes the film a pulpy, sci-fi detective story with an infusion of MTV and topical social issues.