FFWD Weekly
Copyright © 1998 All Rights Reserved.
| FILM Permanent Midnight When Ben Stiller as a sitcom-writer-turned-junkie injects himself in the neck with a loaded syringe, my reaction was: Well, everyone needs a hobby, I guess. Pretty sad, but no matter how shocking something is, when you've seen it a thousand times.... Addiction movies are strange creatures. Since the lead character only wants one thing, junk, his motivations are pretty repetitive: I want junk. So unless the movie is completely whacked (Naked Lunch) or seen from a new angle (Drugstore Cowboy) or a farewell love letter to smack (Trainspotting), what's a script to do? Apparently, other than some funny lines courtesy of autobiographical funny guy Jerry Stahl, not much. Take away the heroin chic factor from Permanent Midnight and you've basically got a dumb person doing dumb things for an hour-and-a-half. Imagine if you swapped heroin for, let's say, lip balm. Lead Actor: "I've got to get this lip balm monkey off my back!!" Good Friend: "Here's four thousand dollars to get straight." Lead Actor: "I'm a new man!" Bad Friend: "Want some lip balm?" Lead Actor: "Sure!" (Repeat.) However, despite being a typical heroin movie, Permanent Midnight does have some great performances and they alone almost make the flick worth seeing. Stiller puts on a breakthrough show (if a little twitchy and sweaty), Janeane Garofalo is at her usual best and - surprise! - ER's Maira Bello, as Stiller's confessor, brings real depth and charm to what could otherwise have been someone just sitting there and nodding. Still, they can't overcome the film's two big flaws: 1) Why does every woman fall for this obnoxious, vomiting, short guy? And 2) Where have I seen this before? Oh, wait, I've got it. Everywhere. Lip balm? |