Alex C JunkieFaggot
A friend of a friend is a user, so we managed to write a short but dense critique on this excellent documentary. We are both Generation Y (24-25), so it's like watching the lives of our imaginary junkie cousins.First of all, this documentary is true. Well, you're gonna say "aren't documentaries suppose to outline reality?". Yes, but this masterpiece manages to not become over-dramatic, and follow the lives of 5 very different personae.Second of all, the shocking nature of this work of art is not meant to create an atmosphere of "drugs are bad, okay?" but to portray how the misuse of such a powerful substance can lead to the destruction of many people's lives, when the information about the substance itself, its use and its pharmacology is purely street-wise due to the lack of the Internet.Today there are a lot of people who we can technically call "addicts", but they live perfectly normal lives because of the information given through the internet, even before start self-medicating with opiates.We live in a post-curt Cobain world, so when you watch this documentary, try to have in mind how these characters would be if they lived in the age of Web 2.0
iamtriangled
It was hard to watch the needles in the beginning. Needles in the arm. Neddles in the foot. In the neck. Then the needles stopped mattering. It got hard to watch the users. You end up realizing that these addicts are people, not just dirty bodies walking the streets. You can figure out why these people cannot stop. You see that they made a mistake a long time ago and that mistake held on. All of their friends are part of that mistake. Who do you go to when your trying to fix a mistake? Your friends. Notice how this won't work. This film makes you see these people as people. The types that have to sleep on sidewalks. Find this film and watch it.
danbenbow
This is the best anti-drug movie ever. Unlike the many movies that have been made about drugs, that can't help ladling pyrotechnics and playing up the "glory", this movie shows hard drug use for what it is - thoroughly dehumanizing. Enter at your own risk.
Blondie_
Every kid should see this very depressing, dark, and scary, and well-made documentary to see how evil drugs really are. It should be a must in any health/safety high school class! I know the documentary was made quite some time ago and I would love to see an update on the young adults who were featured in it. I do know that Tracy, the woman with the long brown hair and glasses, sobered up and is doing well. She was on the Oprah Winfrey show about two years ago on a segment about a women's drug rehab center-she was one of the people who had made it through the program. Sadly though, some of those people featured on the HBO doc looked so near death you know they probably are dead by now.
AD
