this film was great

I rented and have watched about 150 movies this year thanks to Netflix and while most I had to fast-forward through... or they bored me to tears... this was one that actually held my attention with no problem and actually ended up being pretty damn awesome.

The director made a wise choice to have Giuseppe (aka the best filmmaker in the world today) star in this film. His natural charisma and acting abilities carried the film. He was amazing. I'm curious, though -- did he write any of the lines in the script? Or was there a lot of improvisation (I'm guessing there was). Because his lines felt so natural and unscripted, at times.

In fact, that's what I really enjoyed about the film. It all felt so natural. It didn't feel cliché, for the most part. There were moments here or there where the film would lapse into some unintentional comedy (some weird timing errors in the dialogue as delivered by an actor or actress mainly comes to mind, as well as a couple unavoidably cheesy effects), but that's a given when you consider the low budget and DV camera. Really, while the main story wasn't anything new, it did feel fresh, perhaps because of the interesting sense of humor (the character of the mime and the *beep* HAPPENS" scene were hilarious!) and a few surreal touches (the old man at the wedding talking in slow motion and then the cat's blood splatters on the main character's face in a hallucination). Everything was so well-done... the directing was top-notch. I love the scenes of the city changing from day to night, as well as all the beautiful beach shots near the beginning (since Takeshi Kitano is my favorite director, and he puts a beach shot in all of his films, this especially thrilled me).

Don't dismiss this film because of its low budget trappings. At first, the DV look did seem a bit grating, but the director actually did some cool things with it. A very stylish and interesting film. One of the best drug movies ever, by the way -- the only one I can think eclipsing it is the similiar "Most High" or the documentary "Story of a Junkie". This film is about a BILLION times better than total *beep* Requiem for a Dream or Spun.

Great film. I look forward to more by this director.