Drugstore Cowboy

Gus Van Sant is one of my favorite directors yet his work sometimes is soo good its amazes me and at times so shit it disappoints me (Psycho)  or good but not great that it fails to overwhelm me ( Good Will Hunting, Finding Forrester, Milk, To Die For) Yet his art house films ( Last Days, Gerry & Elephant) are the ones I truly relate to and feel he excels in presenting a unique vision to the screen more so with Elephant but Gerry had some amazingly beautiful scenes in it too.

Drugstore Cowboy sits in between for me but somehow I liked it more than say To Die For. Matt Dillion plays a junkie who along with his wife, best friend and his girlfriend rob drugstores to feed their habit falling in and out with the police. It is only when tragedy strikes that Dillion decides to pursue a straight life.

In Dillion's last soliloquy he brings to light the troubles of human nature the constant mood changes not knowing whats next, where life will go and what will become of you and hence why some people choose to overdose or as he states that no one knows what mood they will be in or how to control that mood and how they will feel all a junky needs to do is look at the bottle and know the name and know of the feeling of which the drug induces and then they will be taken to that place.

Drugstore could of been stronger but it seemed to all pull together at the end allowing for the overall experience to be an interesting one showing the skills of a young director coming into his own