the problem with this movie

I think the main problem with this movie is you never get a feel for why jerry does drugs. yes, you see him do them, and he seems to do it all the time, but there's no real reason behind them.

The book makes it quite clear, Jerry Stahl is full of self loathing so deep, so permanent, this is the midnght he can not escape from, he hates L.A. he hates pretentious sitcoms, he hated writing for sitcoms, and he hates himself.

Heroin as a form of escape and suicide, no different really from some self hating alcoholics, but Jerry never would become an alcoholic he was far too cool for that, he says in the book that what he really wanted to be was a black jazz musician.

I do think the movie gets how awful of a human being Jerry was, it has the right sleaziness coming through. Other people have commented on the book about how it's funny. It's not funny, it's horrible, it's a person living in hell, taking everyone he meets with him. Good job by Stiller capturing this.

The book also makes clear Jerry was a drug addict from the time he was 15 or so, a junkie before he even got to L.A. The only thing that changed in his move to LA is that magically money seemed to be given to him so he could do even more drugs.

I think this could have been corrected by adding some scenes which Jerry had in the book, one particularly good one is when he was down in Phoenix on a 90 day cure, when the head of his group, he managed to taunt so badly that this guy's face would turn red, his veins would bulge until he was furious and out of control with anger. Jerry found it particularly awful that this guy was "not cool" in fact, he played chess, and was proud of it. Anything "square" at this camp, Jerry would demolish with his wit. While working at the McDonalds, he would spit into the batter to show his contempt and hatred for the people he had to serve meals.

Stuff like that would have really helped show the whole reason for the descent into drugs. As it is, the movie lacks focus, watching it, I kept thinking, well, you could stop you know.

With a better focus on this incredible self hatred and self destructive impulses the movie would have been a lot tighter.