A Thousand Junkies (2017): Waitin’ for the Man

“A ‘drug’ movie with no drugs, and a ‘road’ movie that goes nowhere,” is the tagline for the small, wonderful indie film A Thousand Junkies (2017), one of my favorite pictures from last year's Tribeca Film Festival. That clever and well-chosen catchphrase aptly sums up the plot, such as it is.  A Thousand Junkies describes the day-in-the-life misadventures of three engagingly hapless guys in L.A., down on their luck, just trying to score enough heroin to get through another day.

Why would you want to see a movie about some junkies? Well, for one thing this movie is surprisingly, wryly funny. Not that it treats addiction lightly. The main characters, Tommy (writer/director Tommy Swerdlow), TJ (cowriter T.J. Bowen) and Blake (Blake Heron) are all pitiable characters; yet each in his way has a certain appeal. Theirs is a partnership of necessity, and still there’s a lovely camaraderie there. Through their frequently (and unintentionally) amusing banter and a series of well placed flashbacks, we get to know each of these guys a bit, their history of addiction, rehab, and relapse, their failed relationships and burned bridges, how heroin has taken them over.    

After they miss a connection with their dealer (his wife is going into labor) and as one prospective lead after the other falls through, Tommy’s beat-up heap of a car breaks down, their last pooled dollars are frittered, they feel more and more “unwell” and desperation grows. 

Other netherworld characters come and go, most memorably the off-kilter Russian, Igor (Denarte de Freitas); hopelessly hopeful schemes are attempted – to borrow or steal money (again) from one’s Mom, another’s girlfriend, even from Tommy’s young daughter – yet the dope remains just out of reach. At one point, Tommy tries to hit up his old friend, the actor Bill Pullman, who feels obliged to apply the remedial doctrine of the “hard no.” Addiction turns out to be hard work.

The world of A Thousand Junkies is poignantly pathetic. One commentator labelled it ‘Three men in a (sinking) boat’.  But the movie never swerves into gloominess. Rather it’s funny and sad, touching and insightful, endearing and likeable. The cinematography is supportive and features scenes in a Los Angeles generally unseen by the Hollywood crowd, the tinsel-town sightseers or even most middle-class L.A. residents.  The soundtrack, mostly guitar, by Benji Lysaght is moody and appropriate.

A Thousand Junkies was well received at Tribeca, and won the Jury Prize as best picture at the Alameda International Film Festival, where I saw it a second time with several friends and family members. Everyone I talked to liked it a lot.  

Swerdlow, Bowen and Heron were all ex-junkies when they made this movie. In fact, they got to know each other through AA and other rehab programs. So they know the scene and the roles they portray from personal experience. It shows: there is truth and understanding in each of their characters.

Tommy Swerdlow is best known as a screenwriter, particularly for the surprise hit movie Cool Runnings back in 1993, but also Snow Dogs (2002) and others. He was also an actor in a number of movies in the 1980s, among them Howard the Duck (1986) and Spaceballs (1987). A Thousand Junkies is the first feature film he has directed, yet he has a sure hand and, although the characters may be stuck, the film moves right along. 

As far as I can tell this is T.J. Bowen’s first film as writer or actor (you can’t tell, though – he seems completely natural). Blake Heron is an actor who first came to prominence as a teenager starring in Shiloh (1996), and is also known for We Were Soldiers (2002), as well as other films and TV roles. Although he had been clean for some time prior to making A Thousand Junkies, he died of a drug overdose in September 2017, age 35. So it goes. Needless to say, his unfortunate death adds yet another layer of meaning to this movie.

85 minutes

Grade: A -    

Recommended

Available streaming on Amazon Video, Google Play, Vudu, iTunes and other streaming services; but as of this writing, not on Netflix.