So I was watching Basketball Diaries last night and realized that Leonardo Dicaprio's descent into drugs in that film is hilarious. I never read Jim Carroll's book, but I assume most-to-all of the exposition was cut for the screenplay as Leonardo goes from huffing cleaning supplies to full on heroin addiction over the course of three amazingly trite drug scenes in the first 15 minutes.
This got me thinking about all the amazingly lame depictions of drug use in practically every "drug" movie.
Permanent Midnight
1998
Starring: Ben Stiller, Owen Wilson and Elizabeth Hurley.
Premise: This film recounts the creator of ALF's struggle with heroin as played by a leather-clad Ben Stiller. While the majority of the film is lame, the most amazingly lame scene features Ben Stiller shooting heroin to Prodigy in an abandoned office building. HA-LARIOUS.
Go
1999
Starring: Jay Mohr, Katie Holmes, Taye Diggs, Lumberg from Office Space and Scott Wolf.
Premise: A C-list ensemble cast makes out at parties, sweats and botches low level drug deals while taking Ecstasy and various designer drugs. Just watch the trailer, it's so 1999 that you might go insane.
Charlie Bartlett
2007
Starring: Anton Yelchin, Kat Dennings and Robert Downey Jr
Premise: a high school kid sells his Ritalin to get popular. Actually.... this depiction of perscription amphetamines is pretty dead on.
Spun
2002
Starring: Jason Schwartzman, Brittany Murphy, John Leguizamo, Mickey Rourke, Mena Suvari and DEBBIE HARRY (soundtrack by Billy Corgan)
Premise: A Meth Binge. Wait for Schwartzman's awesome drug acting at :30... it pretty much sums up the film.
The lamest depiction of drug use EVER IN HISTORY......
Desperate Lives
1982
Starring: Helen Hunt
Premise: An anti-drug film about the horrors of PCP. In the most incredible scene in drug movie history, Helen Hunt's jumps out a classroom window after doing Angel Dust with her beautifully coiffed boyfriend. I know this isn't a "real film" but this is my list and I don't care.
And here is a bonus clip of Kenny Powers on Ecstasy
God loves a cheerful giver.
What are you talking about, Go was awesome -- and realistic!
I always talked to my cat when I was on ecstasy.
Great job, Libby!
Similarly, it's interesting how classic movies got alcoholism all wrong but casual drinking all right. See The Lost Weekend as evidence of the former and The Thin Man as evidence of the latter.
LW:
TM:
Nowadays movies portray alcoholics well. A good example is Crazy Heart - my review will run later today.
Segue win!
and right now it's time for LSD cat:
I concur with the poster above. Go was pretty good.
listen to my dancing feet.
that's always my line.
Meanwhile, this is the most awesome depiction of drug use in history:
"The present has gone. Fantasy is a part of reality, but we take the breaks off. We're thinking clearly, yet not thinking at all. This feels right. We stop trying to control things; a warm rush of chemicals through us. Is this brain damage? We forget all the hurt and pain in life. We wanna go somewhere else. We're not threatened by people anymore. All our insecurities have evaporated. We're in the clouds now. Wide open, we're spacemen, orbiting the earth. Yea, the world looks beautiful from here. We're nympholeptics, desiring for the unattainable. We risk sanity for moments of temporary enlightenment. So many ideas, so little memory. The last thought killed by anticipation of the next. We embrace an overwhelming feeling of love. We flow in unison. We're together. I wish this was real. We want a universal level of togetherness, where we're comfortable with everyone. We're in rhythym, part of the movement. We wave goodbye,. Ultimately, we just want to be happy. Yeah, yeah (laughs) What the fuck was I just talking about?"
LIBBY: I AM SO GLAD YOU ARE BACK.
The Thin Man is my favorite casual drinking movie of all-time!!!!
I had blocked Ben Stiller's Permanent Midnight performance completely out of my mind - it is better for both of us that way.
I always compare the not-so-hot Jay Mohr of today with the adorably-hot Jay Mohr of GO. Sad.
Best:
Heather Graham and Julianne Moore, bedroom scene in "Boogie Nights"
Colin Farrell, Brendan Gleeson, a dwarf, two hookers in "In Bruges"
"It'll make you fuck like superman" - what I say when giving any pill (tylenol, multivitamin, birth control) to someone. my lil homage to Basketball Diaries.
Also, in Spun, that character that played The Cook and told a story about drowning puppies -- amazing.