Box Office Prophets: A-Lists

A-List: Don't Do Drugs

By Jason Dean

July 17, 2003

First it's the heroin, then it's the absinthe.

In Cameron Crowe’s Almost Famous, William’s well meaning but highly embarrassing Mother sweetly but all too loudly makes the request: “Don’t take drugs!” Hollywood has done a variety of takes on a similar theme. Some of them are out-and-out preachy, others take more of an approach where they just let the viewer see what the worst case could be.

Less Than Zero

Adapted from Bret Easton Ellis’ nihilistic view of the ‘80s, Less Than Zero ended up significantly watered down and seemed more as though it was inspired by rather than being based on the book Robert Downey, Jr. gives a rather prophetic performance as a young man falling further and further into cocaine addiction, and the financial troubles associated with it. His friends try their best to form a support net, given their background as children of a well-off Beverly Hills family. The net result seems to be an R-rated preview of the soon-to-follow Beverly Hills 90210 with better production values.

Rush

This 1991 movie starred Jason Patric and Jennifer Jason Leigh as cops who took the undercover method perhaps a bit too far. In order to pose as drug users to gather information, our intrepid pair actually takes drugs. Then, in a “because it was scripted that way” sense of logic, they take enough drugs not only to maintain their covers but to end up as actual addicts. Oh, and did I mention that they end up falling in love with each other? As much as I just mocked, Rush is actually a pretty good movie with excellent acting performances as well as some degree of commentary on the whole law enforcement struggle with drugs. I vaguely remember somewhat of a media storm over the film in its initial release as the film does show law enforcement to be less than effective as well its portrayal of drug users.

Traffic

Continuing the theme of questioning the effectiveness of what is now the “War on Drugs,” Steven Soderbergh followed with his remake of the British series. With its parallel story lines showing different aspects of drug use, trafficking, and enforcement, Traffic again raises questions about the effectiveness of our current anti-drug efforts. Soderbergh also deserves credit for color coding the three storylines so that a movie-going public that found a film like Mission: Impossible to difficult to follow would have a fighting chance at separating the three plots. I have included the Traffic on this list for the arc involving Erika Christensen. While her father the drug Czar (Michael Douglas as yet another rich white guy) is off making ready for the evening news with busts at the border, his daughter experiments with drugs and not-so-gracefully ends up addicted and doing things that one would hope that only a junkie would do. Not quite as preachy as Rush in my opinion, Traffic is that much more effective for showing all sides of the drug trade. The movie has one of my favorite sound bites, with Catherine Zeta-Jones shrilly declaring, “Shoot him in the head!” I just have this feeling that if she could get away it, Catherine wouldn’t hesitate at all to issue such a command. I’ve often heard that CZJ’s American Sweethearts character wasn’t acting, and have always thought that behind closed doors, her iron maiden, no-longer-clueless wife of the drug lord character is the CZJ that has the drive to not settle for her movie paychecks, but to also go for the income from her cell phone commercials, not to mention seeing various photo lawsuits through to the end. However, I’m sure that she’s a very nice, goal-oriented person in real. While we have our successes, I don’t think the Box Office Prophets are in a place to go to against her lawyers.

Trainspotting

Choose life. Choose a job. Choose a career. Choose a family. Choose a fucking big television, choose washing machines, cars, compact disc players, and electrical tin openers. Choose good health, low cholesterol, and dental insurance. Choose fixed-interest mortgage repayments. Choose a starter home. Choose your friends.

But why would I want to do a thing like that?

Now, we’re starting to get to the type of film that I feel is truly effective as anti-drug propaganda. Actually, propaganda is too strong a word, but I think that Trainspotting does make one NOT want to do drugs.. The movie does a very good job of showing the good and the bad of heroin use and does it in a very entertaining way. Ewan McGregor’s Renton takes the audience on a wild ride with a young man who goes from a pointless, drug-addicted existence to wanting to have a life. Along the way, we are matter-of-factly introduced to the methods and horrors of withdrawal: “one bucket for urine, one for feces, and one for vomitus.” We also see the Worst Toilet in all of Scotland as Renton desperately fishes for an opium suppository, as he is so in need of any type of hit. Drugs lead to child neglect and a rather unforgettable nightmare baby image. They also influence the AIDS-related death of what had been a formerly healthy and drug-free individual. All of this is set to what was at the time a revolutionary dance music soundtrack. I also remember critics suggesting the film might need subtitles due to the accents when the film was first released. I’m not sure if it’s just due to the increased popularity of films such as Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels since Trainspotting’s original release or if I just saw the film in a theater with a really bad sound system, but I can remember having some trouble with the dialogue when I first saw it. However, a recent viewing on IFC posed no problem at all.

Requiem for a Dream

If you’ve seen this movie, then you knew that the list was going to end up here. Requiem for a Dream is an excellent movie in nearly every aspect. The cast, including Ellen Burstyn (robbed of an Oscar), Jared Leto, Jennifer Connelly, and Marlon Wayans (an incredible dramatic turn by a Wayans; who thought those words would ever be written?) give performances that are so good that they are difficult to watch at times and yet one can’t look away. The direction by Darren Aronofsky provides shots that have one wondering how he accomplished them, but actually help to set the movie’s tone instead of being done for the sake of the shot existing. The needle shots and the bizarre gliding images of some of the characters come to mind. Our young trio undergoes a relatively standard addiction spiral, but Ellen Burstyn’s demon is diet pills. The most unlikely of drug addicts when the film opens, Burstyn’s portrayal hammers home that addiction doesn’t always capture the obvious victims. None of our main characters meet a happy end in this one. By the time the time our characters have bottomed out, the horrors are so great that one of the most beautiful actresses of our time, Jennifer Connelly, does a nude scene that is one of the saddest and least erotic images put to screen.

After that cheery image, I have to protest that I’m a bit disappointed in my readers for not calling me on my frankly sloppy omission of McG from last week’s video director column. I made mention that I had missed the Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle tie-in for the column, but then I had no entry for McG. I finally saw Full Throttle this past weekend and I realize that the lack of complaints may have been because you wanted me NOT to mention McG. I had thought that Bay’s AVID addiction was the worst carry over from video world to feature world. Michael, I apologize. I can live with your rapid fire edits (well, that and generally I’ve found his movies to be good popcorn type entertainment). McG’s long form video or video album that was Full Throttle was more difficult to take than the occasional impossible-to-follow-unless-you’d-seen-the-storyboard edits of Bay. By the time I left the theater, I felt deaf, as Full Throttle has to have the loudest soundtrack mix I’ve ever heard, but also beaten into submission. YOU WILL HAVE FUN WATCHING MY MOVIE. While I enjoyed the various pop culture references, I kept feeling that the screenplay had been written in lots of little, completely separate sessions as they seemed barely joined.