I have romantic love for that sped-up shot of Nicholas Cage driving the ambulance, grinning devilishly, looking to and fro as Tom Sizemore's face turns from evil to super-evil. To say nothing of Ving Rhames - the single best part of the film - who garners laughs effortlessly in every tic. I loved reading the book a few years back - the descriptions are vivid and tongue-in-cheek - but the film has a Scorsese bent not unlike the frentic, episodic After Hours or the casually exploitative Cape Fear. It's got this energy and darkness where the worst thing could happen at any moment and everybody seems to be anticipating it like mad; A topsy-turvy outrage of a city gone mad as envisioned by a court jester, perhaps.

That this film isn't more widely known or seen is surprising. Its frank depiction of sex, pregnancy out-of-wedlock can only have passed by unnoticed in a hail of bold, Capraesque patriotism (itself a bitter critique in my opinion). I could put it on at any interval and coast along to the end: It's just wonderful.