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Review: Blow
Drugs -- especially coke -- have been associated since the 60s with celebrity and glamour. To say the least, this has always sent a confusing message to the kids who are supposed to stop using them.
The Depp character predicts that once musicians start using coke, everybody else will fall in line. He was right. Actors weren't far behind. Moralists and politicians have never quite caught up to this odd American reality, the strangely glamorous cachet given drugs in this culture.
Traffic raised the question of whether our insane and costly drug policies can ever work. But that movie made sure that all its uses and peddlers were either grotesque villains or tragic victims awaiting redemption.
Blow doesn't take itself so seriously as a drug-message movie. It's more an appealing, sometimes powerful portrait of a doomed character of a particular era and environment, in which drug profits rode a tidal wave of middle-class and college-kid money.
Depp's Jung isn't a bad guy, just an oblivious one caught up in the swirl, not really in the same league as the guys he gets tangled with. He's a good-natured, good-hearted loser who rides the wave, then takes the inevitable fall. Like Traffic, this movie takes a bleak view of the government's desperate and ineffective war on drugs.
But Blow isn't really about drugs per se, at least not most of the time. It's about that strange period in American life when drugs became both celebrated and ubiquitous, even as laws and law enforcement attempts to stem the tide became more frantic, ineffective and Draconian.
The movie is based on a more-or-less real life drama (the real-life Jung's ravaged, haunted face pops up at the end, a nice move). A guy from Massachusetts heads for California, can't believe the babes and drug appetites, and ends up yakking with the celebrated Columbian druglord Pablo Escobar and shuttling truckloads of grass and cocaine in and out of the U.S. in suitcases, planes and boats. He has so much cash piled around his boat in boxes that he has to buy a new boat.
The 60s and 70s settings and styles are terrific (the soundtrack is also great, kicking off appropriately with the Rolling Stones and including Lynyrd Skynyrd and Bob Dylan). It's a perfect role for Depp, too, and he handles it easily. Ray Liotta plays Jung's doting but heartbroken father Fred, weak in the face of the money-grubbing shrew he married, who watches helplessly as his only son hits the wall. Their relationship, well portrayed, effectively sets up Jung's own sad fate.
Ultimately, Blow is a morality play about loss and betrayal, lost chances, and the unthinking ways in which people toss their lives away. Its opening shot makes clear that this is a story of reckoning, as mass-marketed movies about drugs probably have to be to get past Hollywood squeamishness and into the suburban megaplexes. (The producers said they couldn't even mention the word "drugs" in the trailers to get a "PG" rating for the preview.)
The message is always more or less the same. If you get caught up with this stuff, you will get burned badly, ultimately losing everything of value in your life, if not your life itself. It seems inevitable that the next phase will be people dealing and selling drugs (like sex) over the Net, if they aren't already.
Blow does veer off-track when Jung meets and marries a spoiled Columbian brat (Penelope Cruz) and fathers a child. Naturally, the arrival of a daughter makes Jung see the light. Is it too late to reform? (What do you think?) The relationship between Depp and Cruz never really has time to develop, though, or even make much sense, though it's critical to the film's despairing and emotional payoff. Somehow, we are not the least bit surprised when Jung's wife turns into -- you got it -- a money-grubbing shrew.
Blow is worth seeing. Despite the fact that it can't always make up its mind precisely what it's about, the movie is more than saved by Depp's heartbreaking performance. He humanizes the drug culture and makes us feel as if any of us, at that time, might easily have gotten pulled into it.
Like Traffic, this movie takes a bleak view of the government's desperate and ineffective war on drugs.
No it doesn't. It doesn't comment on the government's efforts at all. The only time the government is even portrayed is when Jung himself gets caught and put under the punishment of the law.
Columbian
When you're referring to the country of Colombia, the descriptive is 'Colombian'. I hope you don't anger too many patriotic cartels.
This movie is first and foremost a biography. It's not necessarily a commentary on the drug culture. It's not commentary on government policy. It's a biography of one man's life showing the consequences of certain decisions, not the least of which is total alienation from everything he loved. The characters are very well-portrayed (despite what Katz says, the Cruz/Depp on-screen relationship is perfect, because it accurately mirrors the Jung/Mirta relationship) and the movie moves along at a snappy enough pace that you're not left idling on any one scene.
What I didn't really like about the movie is that it never encouraged any sort of feeling about the protagonist. The movie tries at points to make you feel sorry for Jung or angry at Jung or understanding, but it never really comes through, because when he's a victim, it's really his own fault, and when he's not the taking advantage of various oppurtunities, you just see them as dumb but acceptable decisions. At the end, when I'm supposed to feel somewhat bad for this man who's lost literally everything, I don't, because everything wasn't taken away; he gave it all away. I end up feeling worse for the father than for anyone else, simply because he's the only one who constantly gets the shaft (by no fault of his own).
In all, Blow is a worthwhile movie to see, but it's not a commentary on drugs like Traffic. Depp's not going to win any Oscars for his portrayal of Jung, even though it's a relatively good one, simply because the audience really isn't all that moved. Everyone who walked out of the theatre with me basically said, "Eh, it was a good film, but I wasn't really affected by it."
YMMV.
I don't see movies for the plot. I don't see them for the rich acting. I don't see them for the skillful handling of complex issues.
I see films because they're a cheap date that doesn't require advance planning.
But your reviews do not take this into consideration. Your reviews do not tell me whether this is a movie I should take Heidi Wall to. You seem to be under the impression that I go to movies for my own pleasure. Let me correct that impression - unless the film is playing at the "Lusty Lady Theatre", I probably won't find it terribly interesting.
I propose a simple remedy - put in a date scale. Something like this:
So Jon, can we get this scale added to your reviews? Cause once this weakness is ironed out, you will stand as the greatest film critic since Siskel.
--Shoeboy
Finally, he's on his own. He did it right. He made the movie he's wanted to make, and he did a good job with it.
Is Blow perfect? Nope, it gets into a groove and slips out of it too easily, like a faulty transmission. But it's important to note how GREAT the groove is that he carries in the 2nd act of this movie. From around the thirty minute mark up until Penelope Cruz shows up, this movie is absolute classic drug cinema (what's really scary is you could have a couple hundred movies in that catagory).
Johnny Depp, Mr. 21 Jump Street himself, proves yet again what a fantastic actor he is, and I hope he gets accolades from this performance. He IS George Jung, and the heartbreaking final act of this movie really got me.
Other truly notable performances come from one of Jung's parents, the amazing Ray Liotta, who gives the film a sense of 'Goodfellas' that the movie can't help but be compared to. A drug movie that spans a persons life, from the great times to the busts and the backstabbings. Paul Reubens also does a great job as Derek Foreal, the Californian connection.
I for one highly recommend this movie. For no other reason than to enjoy the greatness of the 2nd act and the heartbreaking finale. A few over-the-top performances (Cruz, in particular) try to weigh the movie down but Depp holds it together, along with Demme's great direction. One of the best movies to come along all year.
My rating: 7.5 out of 10
(If this looks familiar, it's because I already posted this on ArsTechnica last night)
What a fucking great film. Usually the high point of any movie-going experiance is to sit through the uber-cool previews, hoping in vain that the feature will live up to the excitement and emotional rush of the 2 minute ads.
That was not the case here.
I expected to get a Tomb Raider trailer, but was sorely disspointed. I did get to see a Pearl Harbor preview, but my initial excitement had an undercurrent of remorse, as I remembered not only all the men who died that day, but the fact Pearl Harbor is a love story...and it stars Ben Affleck.
So, onto the movie....
Blow begins as most great drug epics do, near the end, with a few choice words from the final chapter in the story...the much wiser...and older (damnit...Depp is one creepy fuck as a 60-something guy...the real George Jung looks like Terry Gilliam...Johnny is what I imagine Joan Rivers would look like after a nuclear war)
This movie screams Major Fucking Drug Epic from the very beginning. No question about it. You know it's going to be one sweet ride, and you are itching for it to begin like the...oh never mind.
The next 1.8 hours or so are spent following the rise and fall of Mr. George Jung and his magnificent empire in white. And green....lots of green.
"We're going to need a bigger boat."
Different hues, mind you, different hues.
The eventual fall and collapse of Jung's business and life rather than a simple footnote, we see the whole fucking thing from beginning to end. No three minute montage for us this time. The final scenes in the prision are memorable as they are heartbreaking.
Speaking of heartbreaking, I don't know what it was, but I found myself on the verge of tears during all the scenes with his daughter. This is what happens when you write real characters, not annoying or hopelessly "cute" caricatures that drag down the plot and the movie. Kudos to the man behind the keyboard...
The cast was perfect and carried the movied perfectly. Franka Pontente was a surprise...you see her in the credits but forget she exists until you realize who she is in the film. Rachel Griffiths appears, amazingly in a mother role...7 years ago she was a 20-something in Muriel's Wedding now, a 50-60 year-old mother of Johnny Depp, sporting a Massachusetts accent. That's what I call range.
Ray Liotta was brilliant...and if you thought he was only capable of being a mean, hardass character, then just wait and see this fucking movie.
Paul Rubens as a gay hairdresser? Why not?
A far cry from Pee-Wee Herman and "The Spleen". Yeah, he's pushing 50, but don't think for a minute he isn't one hell of an actor with one hell of a screen presence.
Bobcat Golthwait! Bobcat! Where the fuck have you been?!!!! Good to see you! Thanks for not bringing Pauly Shore!
To the point here...see this movie...if you have...see it again.
End Transmission
I'm willing to bet most people are unaware of the fact Blow was filmed on varying film stock.
The 60s scenes were filmed with '60s-era film
The 70s scenes were filmed with '70s-era film
etc, etc
I had a friend in High School who:
1) Started dealing a little pot in Jr. High;
2) Started dealing coke in Sr. High;
3) By the time he graduated, he had paid for a big house on the beach; with cash;
4) Had 2 new Harleys and a couple sports cars (all cash);
5) Several babes around the pool on any given weekend.
But, people get jealous. One night as he rode his Harley home from a party, a rival dealer ran him down with a big four wheel drive -- then drove over his body 8-10 times.
It's a shame, he was a really nice kid, and non-violent about the whole drug thing -- he just liked having money, respect (from his users/groupies, anyway) and a care free lifestyle.
He was 22 years old when they got him, as I recall.
Treatment, not tyranny. End the drug war and free our American POWs.
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