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Nicolas Cage stars as a third shift New York ambulance paramedic haunted by ghosts and clinging to his sanity in this grim, sometimes darkly comic film from director Martin Scorsese and Taxi Driver scribe Paul Schrader. Cage’s character gets a natural high from saving people’s lives, but he hasn’t saved one in months — and he needs his fix. A cardiac arrest case leads him into a possible relationship with the victim’s daughter (Patricia Arquette), and his will is tested by three different ambulance partners over three tumultuous nights. John Goodman, Ving Rhames, and Tom Sizemore play the partners, each escalating in energy and freakishness.

It’s a darkly beautiful movie to look at and listen to, featuring cinematography by Robert Richardson and an eclectic soundtrack of songs and score by Elmer Bernstein. It’s not a plot-heavy film, definitely more of a character study with visceral tone poem qualities. Cage carries the piece well and Ving Rhames stands out among the supporting players. There’s certainly religious allegory going on (it IS a Scorsese movie, after all), but I’m not sure what the takeaway is, except maybe to put some punctuation on the pervasiveness of human awfulness and the sorrow of our mortal coil. Oh, and never ever ever visit New York City. Especially not at night.