Reviews

Matt Dillon igives his best performance in this movie, gives an minimalistic, sympathetic portrayal of a junk addict trying to go straight.

The subject matter may be a bit dark for those that like to see life from the "sunny side". It is set after all, in gray, gray, Portland Oregon in the 70's. It deals with a crew of four, two couples, that go around ripping off drugstores for opiates. It does not attempt to judge or condemn this behavior, it just tells the story of a group of junkies, and one of their attempts to go clean and find out what the straight life is like.

Those of you that have experience with any form of substance abuse may find that this movie rings true. I loved the quote by Bob something to the effect of: "In life, you never know one minute to the next how you're going to feel. But a dope fiend just has to look at the labels on the bottles." By no means does this movie glamorize drug use. In fact, it shows it for what it is, a temporary fix that leads nowhere but destruction.

Just watched again last Sunday. I really didn't want to, because I find the film somewhat melancholy, but my girlfriend insisted. Don't like movies that deal with death and loss all that much.

I see a lot of differing opinions about this movie that it was about stupid people from the south, that it's a morality play, that it shows that anyone can succeed.

I really don' think that the director wanted to have such a heavy handed obvious movie at all. This movie is like a painting, not a linear story. It was not about the South, Forest Gump, or Vietnam. It was about life! There were parts of it that were silly, made me laugh, and yeah, tear up (when his mother was sick and dying).

So, like every film ever made it has it's flaws and is imperfect. It will work with some people and not with others. But I found it to have moments, scenes of mesmerizing beauty that really got to a part of the human soul that a few movies try, but fail to reach.