Genre:
Drama
Directed
by: Gus Van Sant
Cast:
Matt Dillon, Kelly Lynch, James Remar, Heather Graham
Running
time: 102 minutes
Based on the autobiographical novel of the
same name written by James Fogle, this 1989 crime drama tells the story of Bob
Hughes, a self-described drug fiend who moves around the country with his crew
of three, which includes his girlfriend Dianne, robbing drugstores. After a
traumatic event happens within the gang, Bob decides to go clean and join the
methadone program. Unfortunately for him, after spending so many years in the
drug world, his past was bound to catch up with him.
I was pleasantly surprised by Matt Dillon’s
performance here. While he has always been quite descent as an actor in the
other roles I have seen him play, he showed great depth in Drugstore Cowboy. He
was quite convincing and he made me wish I had seen this gem of a film long
before I did.
It was a nice treat, also, to see Beat
culture icon William S. Burroughs in the role of Father Tom, an aging junkie
priest.
This was Gus Van Sant’s second film as a
director and he has garnered well-deserved praise for it. Over the years, Van
Sant has shown a great deal of ability for telling stories about marginalized
people, and, with Drugstore Cowboy, he gave us a compelling story about
multidimensional characters. He neither demonized nor glorified the characters;
he just showed them for what they were, faults included. Well worth watching.
Rating:
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