Review of Drugstore Cowboy (1989) by Edith N — 03 Jun 2008

As you know, I don't much care for drug movies. Never have. However, there is a difference between a drug movie and a movie with drugs in it; this is definitely the latter. What's the difference? Drug movies are about the drugs themselves. They feel obligated to show you what every trip is like. You don't tend to see the characters sober, ever, unless they are actually in the act of becoming drugged. There's no real character development. There's just drugs and more drugs. And, invariably, if a character tries to go off drugs, worse things will happen to them than when they are stoned, and they will decide that the lack of drugs is to blame and go back on them. Whereas a movie with drugs in it will be about the people, and while a trip or two might be shown, it isn't considered mandatory. It is possible, sometimes, to be a casual user; it is possible to quit.

Bob (Matt Dillon) steals from drugstores. He and his compatriots set up a scam so that the girls create a distraction while Bob sneaks behind the counter and aims to steal the good stuff; Dilaudid is the best. But the thing is, we are not glorifying Bob's life. He is a pathetic character, really. He knows he's going to go back to prison at some point. His mother won't talk to him if she can avoid it. His wife is, um, unsatisfied. Eventually, an act occurs that completely changes his outlook, and he decides to go straight, which both works and doesn't work, depending on the perspective you have on the subject. Mostly, I think, it works.

This is another Raul film. I remember his starting to show it to me at one point, and I don't remember why I didn't finish watching it. But this is, this morning, the first time I've ever seen the whole thing. Raul liked drug movies, as I recall; it's a place where we didn't agree. But he was intrigued more by movies with drugs in them, and I'm totally with him there. We are watching this movie to see Bob develop, not to see Bob and Diane (Kelly Lynch) and Rick (James LeGros) and Nadine (Heather Graham) take drugs. Even Diane, the more hopeless addict, is less about drugs than about her own complete pantheon of needs. The drugs are only one aspect.

And that's what makes this film better than a lot of others of similar subject matter. Yes, these people are all addicts. But we see more than just that. We see Bob and Diane's ridiculous superstitions. No mention of dogs. No hats on beds. No looking at mirrors, because you won't like what you see. Well--of [i]course[/i] these people wouldn't like what they've seen. They might see that they are, as Bob's mother says, acting like little children running after whatever they want without realizing that, sometimes, you have to give up what you want in order to get what you need.

So yeah, I liked it. I'm not sure I [i]enjoyed[/i] it, but I found it fascinating to delve into these complex characters, and the performance by William S. Burroughs (another favourite of Raul's) is pleasant, if disturbing. Even he, who is little more than a cameo, is a complicated character. And, of course, there is the tragic Nadine, who becomes more of a catalyst than she ever could have imagined at the beginning of the movie, when she's faking a seizure.