Gus Van Sant’s dreamy, drifty, deadpan second feature—an addiction drama based on James Fogle’s autobiographical novel—captures the zonked-out textures and almost surreal absurdity of a life lived fix to fix. Swinging between dope-fueled disconnection and edgy paranoia, Matt Dillon plays the leader of a ragtag crew (also featuring Kelly Lynch, Heather Graham, and James Le Gros) that robs pharmacies for pills, coasting across the 1970s Pacific Northwest while trying to outrun sobriety and fate. With a brilliant supporting turn from counterculture high priest William S. Burroughs and a lyrical feeling for the streetscapes of Van Sant’s hometown of Portland, Oregon, Drugstore Cowboy cemented the director’s status as a preeminent poet of outsiderhood. DIRECTOR-APPROVED 4K UHD + BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES New 4K digital restoration, supervised and approved by director Gus Van Sant and director of photography Robert Yeoman, with uncompressed stereo soundtrack One 4K UHD disc of the film and one Blu-ray with the film and special features Audio commentary featuring Van Sant and actor Matt Dillon The Making of “Drugstore Cowboy,” featuring interviews with Van Sant and members of the cast and crew New interviews with Yeoman and actor Kelly Lynch Deleted scenes Trailer English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing PLUS: An essay by author and screenwriter Jon Raymond
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Official Movie Discussion
Talk about Drugstore Cowboy (Criterion) 4K 01/25 with the 3BR community.
I somehow never saw Drugstore Cowboy, which is exactly the kind of movie I like using 3DBR for. It's Gus Van Sant's 1989 film about Matt Dillon running a crew that robs drugstores in early-70s Portland, and I ended up really enjoying it.
I usually don't go for drug movies because they lean on hallucination scenes or get cartoonish, but this one doesn't, and I appreciated that. It plays it straight, and that's why it works.
Matt Dillon is really good, and I was surprised to see Heather Graham. ...
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