NateWatchesCoolMovies Gus Van Sant's Drugstore Cowboy is a nonjudgmental portrait of wayward youth, focusing on a quartet of rebels who want nothing more in life than to hang out, shop lift from pharmacies and get high off their spoils. Van Sant seeks not to condone or condemn, but merely to play the part of fly on the wall and observe these individuals who are in their own little world, as created by the 'snake eating its own tail' nature of addiction. Their ringleader Bob (Matt Dillon) leads his crew in self destructive leisure, alongside doting girlfriend Dianne (Kelly Lynch). They are joined by dimwitted Rick (James LeGros) and his very underage girlfriend Nadine (Heather Graham). The film follows their slapdash attempts at a young life, or lack thereof. They're not scumbags or reprehensible people, simply rough hewn youngsters shaped by their environment and engaging in this behaviour simply because they don't know how to do anything else. Despite everything they are likable, especially Dillon, whose laid back, near apathetic cadence sets the tone quite well. The four of them are hounded by stern, straight arrow Detective Gentry (James Remar) who ceaselessly tries to catch them in the act, not so much to humiliate and bust them it seems, but simply to get them on the right track and instill remorse to in turn validate his own existence. The great character actress Grace Zabriskie has a knockout cameo as Bob's sardonic mother, and the original druggie himself William S. Burroughs shows up for a pleasant turn as an old neighbourhood dude and somewhat of a mentor. It's never preachy, nor glorifying, nor repellent, but always strikingly honest and like I said before, without an ounce of judgement. That kind of attitude from a filmmaker telling a story of rapscallions who are so out of line is nice to see. It reminds us that every junkie and lost soul is somebody's son or daughter, and turn your nose at them or not, we all breathe the same air.

gavin6942 A pharmacy-robbing dope fiend (Matt Dillon) and his crew pop pills and evade the law.I was never really into the drug culture. I had friends who were, and some who still are. None who reached the point of robbing pharmacies, but still knee-deep in their own way. This film does a great job of showing the best and the worst of that world. Before "Trainspotting" or "Requiem for a Dream", this really got the point across... and with an incredible cameo from William S. Burroughs.This is easily Matt Dillon's best role. He had a good run in the 1980s and 1990s, but seems to have fizzled out after "Something About Mary" and "Wild Things". A shame, really. Even Heather Graham is pretty good here, and she was still in the phase of being a love interest for the two Coreys.

Tim Kidner Matt Dillon and Kelly Lynch play a couple that use Heather Grahame and James LeGros to help them stage distraction burglaries at pharmacies in Oregon in the 1970's. Director Gus van Sant paints a numbing and sobering look at their lives, from thwarting cop James Remar and his team, always escaping the seemingly inevitable bust and always looking toward their next big hit. After a drug related death, the second half of the film concerns itself with Dillon getting himself clean.Without the ultra intense visuals that hallmarked the later 'Trainspotting' and 'Requiem For a Dream', van Sant uses time lapsed superimposed images to convey moments of thought and of being high. Matt Dillon in particular portrays the pained intensity of a troubled young man very well and Lynch is good, also, conveying a hard-edged individual.The film never wags any fingers nor blames anybody, or anything. There is no glamour either. Somewhat unlike the other two aforementioned drug movies, there's little squalor or total degradation. No pained or graphic scenes of opiate withdrawal. Drugstore Cowboy doesn't have the roller-coaster ups and downs of those two films, either and we're left with a quality drama that informs as much as it entertains. There's also a smattering of dark humour and a great soundtrack too, that superbly enables the mood.

acone56-77-878157 Speaking as a recovering opiate addict I can think of no other movie that depicts addiction in a more accurate realistic way. To be fair the man with the golden arm and hat full of rain were also very well done for their time but drugstore cowboy is the best.I have read reviews here that claim trainspotting or requiem for a dream as better.....not even close.The reason is although many of us ex junkies tended to glamorize drug use eventually we come to realize the redundancy and tediousness that consumes our existence. In the movie drugstore cowboy we see that very thing.They are always either getting high or, and this seems to take up much more time plotting the next score.So forget the melodramatic phony Hollywood depiction of drug addiction; if anyone wants to see the true nature of addiction with all the monotony that goes with it there will be no better movie than this .A couple of points I thought the movie took place in and around Portland Or...and to easily answer one reviewers curiosity on why Nadine was hanging around ....drugs.And