Weirdly, the only one of this trio that I've seen is CLEAN AND SOBER. I was a Michael Keaton fan at the time, so I remember wanting to see if he could pull off a drama role. Yes, he sure could, and the film was pretty damn good too.
I'm a little surprised you didn't include "The Boost" from 1988. It might be the best of the bunch, or at least with the best performances. James Woods gives a great James Woods performance as a real estate broker who, when things go bad, goes down the cocaine path with his wife Sean Young. The story we've seen so many times, but this keeps getting worse and worse. Maybe that's what makes this better...those other films never felt like the addicts were going to be in real danger, while this couple hit rock bottom.
I remember being very disappointed in the adaptation of Bright Lights, Big City (the only one of these I’ve actually seen). It definitely didn’t help that I’d read the book shortly beforehand and despite a deep fondness for Michael J Fox (and Alex P Keaton), he just did not work at all in this role. Glad to know ow my initial impression was on the money.
The best part of BLBC is the soundtrack -- it was as if New Order's "True Faith" was written for this very movie, for the very close while Michael J. Fox devours the fresh loaf of bread...except this is apparently all in my mind, because some other song plays at the end? (I just watched the end of this film on Tubi.) And from what it looks like, it was just in the trailer for the film...oh goodness. Mega fail.
I'm glad you also called out the much different (and extremely less glamorous) way cocaine addiction is handled in the Crack Cinema of 1991: NEW JACK CITY, JUNGLE FEVER ... and I'd include BOYZ IN THE HOOD here, too. Much like the discrepancy in drug sentencing laws for powder vs crack cocaine offenses, characters depicted suffering from crack addiction almost never got their own movie (2006's HALF NELSON a notable exception) and were mainly confined to squalor, poverty and presumably, death.
BLBC was the first novel I read that was written entirely in the second person, and even though it is rather gimmicky in retrospect, as a high schooler, I thought it was cool. I was working at Barnes & Noble at the time (my senior summer), and I was getting acquainted with those fancy Vintage Contemporaries paperbacks (https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/14477.Best_of_Vintage_Contemporaries). I also just remembered: Spy made a very funny parody of Cliffs Notes of these hip, young novelists:
As far as the movies go, I've seen both BLBC and LTZ, but not Clean and Sober. Barely passing grades to BLBC and LTZ for sure. I remember feeling quite bad for Downey, because it looked like he was living that poor character's life in his real life.
you forgot Harold Becker's THE BOOST! but Thurston Moore didn't.
Weirdly, the only one of this trio that I've seen is CLEAN AND SOBER. I was a Michael Keaton fan at the time, so I remember wanting to see if he could pull off a drama role. Yes, he sure could, and the film was pretty damn good too.
I'm a little surprised you didn't include "The Boost" from 1988. It might be the best of the bunch, or at least with the best performances. James Woods gives a great James Woods performance as a real estate broker who, when things go bad, goes down the cocaine path with his wife Sean Young. The story we've seen so many times, but this keeps getting worse and worse. Maybe that's what makes this better...those other films never felt like the addicts were going to be in real danger, while this couple hit rock bottom.
James Woods as coked-up dirtbag? Sorry, me not buying it!
based on a book by Ben Stein??
the book is even more depressing than the movie
I remember being very disappointed in the adaptation of Bright Lights, Big City (the only one of these I’ve actually seen). It definitely didn’t help that I’d read the book shortly beforehand and despite a deep fondness for Michael J Fox (and Alex P Keaton), he just did not work at all in this role. Glad to know ow my initial impression was on the money.
The best part of BLBC is the soundtrack -- it was as if New Order's "True Faith" was written for this very movie, for the very close while Michael J. Fox devours the fresh loaf of bread...except this is apparently all in my mind, because some other song plays at the end? (I just watched the end of this film on Tubi.) And from what it looks like, it was just in the trailer for the film...oh goodness. Mega fail.
I'm glad you also called out the much different (and extremely less glamorous) way cocaine addiction is handled in the Crack Cinema of 1991: NEW JACK CITY, JUNGLE FEVER ... and I'd include BOYZ IN THE HOOD here, too. Much like the discrepancy in drug sentencing laws for powder vs crack cocaine offenses, characters depicted suffering from crack addiction almost never got their own movie (2006's HALF NELSON a notable exception) and were mainly confined to squalor, poverty and presumably, death.
The Cobb Place 8 is now a HobbyTown. AMC opened a 24-screen complex up and across the street.
BLBC was the first novel I read that was written entirely in the second person, and even though it is rather gimmicky in retrospect, as a high schooler, I thought it was cool. I was working at Barnes & Noble at the time (my senior summer), and I was getting acquainted with those fancy Vintage Contemporaries paperbacks (https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/14477.Best_of_Vintage_Contemporaries). I also just remembered: Spy made a very funny parody of Cliffs Notes of these hip, young novelists:
https://archive.org/details/spynotesonmciner00newy
As far as the movies go, I've seen both BLBC and LTZ, but not Clean and Sober. Barely passing grades to BLBC and LTZ for sure. I remember feeling quite bad for Downey, because it looked like he was living that poor character's life in his real life.
Glad to see “Clean and Sober” get a nod. I saw it when it first came out and, while it’s flawed, I thought it was a really engrossing movie.