Drugstore Cowboy (1989)

(On Cable TV, June 2020) It takes a special kind of skill to ride along with junkies, and that’s more or less what writer-director Gus van Sant wants viewers to do in Drugstore Cowboy, as the film follows the adventures of a young man whose addiction is fuelled by a well-practised racket of robbing drugstores and moving from one temporary location to another. Headed by a strong lead performance from Matt Dillon, the film does start on a promising note and keeps going for a while on a strange blend of drug poetry. (Accordingly, no less than William Burroughs briefly shows up as an elderly street philosopher.) There’s something interesting in the structure of the film, as it portrays an addict at his arguable finest, then keeps dragging him down and down through reversals of fortune, then a difficult decision to go straight and try to stick to the narrow path of sobriety. (The ending is ironically open-ended as to whether it will stick.) While it doesn’t quite reach the kind of street poetry that it may have aspired to, Drugstore Cowboy remains a decently entertaining watch—perhaps more interesting as a deep dive into the mindset of hardcore addicts than a sustained narrative.