Blow

by brian.

Blow works better as a resume piece than a film. While the story and the structure are too reminiscent of other great films (most notably Goodfellas and Boogie Nights (Demme goes so far as to thank Scorsese and Anderson in the credits)), it's still clear that Ted Demme has spent a lot of time and effort to make this film good. The narrative's there, the style is solid, and the players give great performances. The only thing holding this film back is the story, which is unfortunately non-fiction.

When dealing with the truth, it gets very tricky to craft an entertaining tale while retaining the verisimilitude that comes with a real man's life. While in some cases you get ready-made anecdotes perfectly suited for the screen, you quite often also get extremely awkward transitions or moments where the writer and director really have to work to make ends meet. These moments bring this film down from where it could be into an area too close to Docudrama. It's a vicious cycle: If Demme didn't have to stick to the truth, he could've fixed a lot of pacing problems and strengthened the overall arc of the film. However, if he didn't have that truth to work from, would he have made such a richly stylistic film?

I've been a fan of Demme's earlier work (generally calling them great little movies), and it's true that this film brings him into a larger arena. Demme tries his hardest and manages to produce a quality piece of work. It's unfortunate that it has to be yet another film about the rise and fall of someone associated with drugs though, for we've all seen this film before. After being done so well so many times, this story is too reminiscent to hold its own against other classics.

I still find it interesting how sympathetic this film is to the protagonist: George Jung. Jung is now in jail, only because of a few mistakes, an unwise decision or two, and lots of bad luck. Between his Mother (all-too reminiscent of Livia Soprano) and his coked-out wife, it's a small wonder that he's not dead already, as Demme tells us. Some would disagree that the man who introduced cocaine to America suffers from a bad rap, which makes the film an interesting counter-point to Soderbergh's Traffic. I'll leave it to others to debate Demme's role of responsibility to America's youth however, for they surely see much worse in each Puff Daddy video.

Blow is by far not a perfect film, but it's still very well done and deserves praise. The entire cast puts forth great work and the music is fairly exceptional as well. My only gripes might wash away with the DVD of this film, for I hear they're trying to get Jung to record a commentary via phone from jail. For that and Ted Demme's next, I wait in anticipation.

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