Junkie is one of those types of films that comes along ever so often and slaps you in the face with a very bizarre experience. Now I have seen other films that take this sort of path, one that comes to mind is a film called "Sublime (2007). I must say though that Junkie is way more bizarre and out there. At first it seems like if you took the odd couple and made the two main characters junkies. Trust me when I say things go crazy quite quickly and they never really give up until the finale. One moment you can have what seems to be a very deep moments between the two and then you get snapped right back into their bizarro world.
As Danny's life spirals out of control he must fight tooth and nail
to kick the habit and rescue himself from the personal hell Nicky has
consigned him to, whilst simultaneously attempting to repair the
deeply damaged relationships with his increasingly bizarre friends and
family.The only thing in his is Nicky who seems to want to stop at nothing to make sure that Danny does not kick his drug habit. Will Danny win his fight to regain what he has lost or will he just become a victim of his addiction?!
I knew going into this film that it is a comedy with dark tones and I really like films that are like that, but honestly I was not prepared for how twisted and dark this film really was. For example there is one scene where Nicky is telling Danny this story about a girl he once loved and it get really emotional and then he does a 180 and turns it into a sick tale of him stalking and then violating a woman in her sleep. Trust me there is a whole lot more scenes like that. On top of that this film really does not let up at all.
With this being a character driven film you obviously need to have good actors playing the characters and Junkie does have some damn good actors in the roles. Danny is played by Daniel Louis Rivas who does a fantastic job at taking his character from a struggling junkie to being strong and sober. Nicky is played by Robert Lasardo who is simply awesome to watch as the insane and very much bi-polar brother who goes from calm to crazy in the snap of a finger. He is an actor I have always liked since I first saw him in Strangeland. Two other characters that stood out as well was the psycho drug dealer Otto and the brothers Dad who is just a worthless human who is quite fucked up.
Overall this is a very crazy experience that makes up for all the insanity with a damn good ending that makes it worth going through Junkie. One thing I suggest doing is watching it with the commentary after you see the film because it is actually a really cool commentary. Also there is a behind the scenes that was fun to watch as well.
I give it 4 scalpels out of 5!
-Daniel "Damnation" Lee
Director: Adam Mason
Lead Actor/Actress: Robert Lasardo, Daniel Louis Rivas, and Andrew Howard
Genre: Horror/Comedy
DVD Release Year: 2013
Theatrical Release Year: 2013
Time Length: 83 mins.
Rating: Not Rated
Region Code: Region Free
Release Company: Indiecan
Website:
Junkie is one of those types of films that comes along ever so often and slaps you in the face with a very bizarre experience. Now I have seen other films that take this sort of path, one that comes to mind is a film called "Sublime (2007). I must say though that Junkie is way more bizarre and out there. At first it seems like if you took the odd couple and made the two main characters junkies. Trust me when I say things go crazy quite quickly and they never really give up until the finale. One moment you can have what seems to be a very deep moments between the two and then you get snapped right back into their bizarro world.
