WatercressBaby

I watched Gus Van Sant’s Drugstore Cowboy last night and, wow. I admittedly have a little bit of a history with addiction dramas. From the nihilistic Requiem for a Dream and Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, to the ever infamous Kids. Its just been a genre that has always sucked me in. Maybe that’s due to my own upbringing around addicts, or maybe even my own opinions around the use of psychedelics. These films have a manic, high-on-speed, energy to them that I’ve come to appreciate.

The first half of Drugstore Cowboy is much the same. Bob Hughes and his ragtag crew of druggie has-beens roam the West Coast, forever searching for virgin pharmacies to rob blind of pills and capsules. We watch misadventure after misadventure, trip after trip, all to avoid the boring humdrum of everyday life. The film is permeated by a ska soundtrack and dutch angles, giving ambience and gravitas to the nomadic life the protagonists lead. Bob speaks to his crew like an outlaw leading his bandits on a caravan raid, like a pastor preaching the gospel of the junkie lifestyle. He likes the life, how it operates, everything feels vivid and magical. He stresses the importance of the Junkie Code of Honor. He fervently believes in hexes and bad luck, god help you if he sees a hat on a bed. Until one day, it stops.

That’s where I think the real magic of this movie lies, its empathy of life outside the drug. The camera becomes more still, focusing on life moving around Bob. The music stops, becoming rarely used and always mellow. In short: its boring. Life outside of addiction is boring. It won’t ever be as fun or as mystical as it was when you were on 1.5 mg of Dilaudid. Bob lives in that grey zone, working a back-breaking but tedious factory job, making amends with the cop he’s treated as a rival, living in a shitty hole-in-the-wall apartment. But he finds the joy where he can. He smiles and laughs with other recovering junkies, not needing to be high to get the jokes. He walks and talks with an old-timer, reminiscing on the good old times of being a drug addict. And in the last few scenes of the movie, he lets go of his wife, who loved dope more than she loved him it seems. But that’s okay. Bob is an addict and will always be an addict, he will always struggle, but now only he makes his decisions. Not dope, not hexes, not driven by a fear of reality, only Bob.

Ratings

The Audience (How entertaining was it?): I had a blast with this one, it feels up and down and never quite lets you know where you’ll land. Never once did I feel like it was lagging or being stretched thin.

The Director (How technically sound was it?): For a film about a bunch of loose drug addicts, the technical side of this movie was really solid. There’s plenty of interesting shots, with a plethora of dutch angles to get you in the headspace of someone tripping balls. I think my favorite little production tidbit was that this was Gus Van Sant’s first time really working with a big film crew. This lead to some great moments like Matt Dillon flourishing in his role as Bob, but also lead the lighting department taking over the shoots and made the film run behind schedule.

The Artist (How thematically compelling was it?): At its heart, Drugstore Cowboy is about running away. About being afraid from the reality you know is beyond waiting at the curve of the morphine. Everyone here reinvents themselves in the glow of drugs, Bob is a leader, Diane is a regal diva, Rick is a skilled criminal pulling off heists, and Nadine is still left learning the lifestyle and who she is to this fucked up nuclear family. They can be someone unique and special, just as long as they’re on the most heavenly of dope.

The Critic (How could it have been better?): I understand that Bob is fully the main character here, obviously the film would focus on him. I just wish the film could have focused more on the unit as a whole. Rick has a throwaway line about wanting to become a farmer, Nadine might be underage, Diane will never be a tramp. All these facts pop up and get washed away with Matt Dillions indomitable performance.

Aggregate Rating: