This movie begins like any other. Some teens are out partying and doing drugs and driving, they get pulled over, and the cop agrees to let them go, but "they owe him one". I immediately suspected a crime sort of caper flick. But instead we follow one of the boys home. We follow Richie home to his life and his family, his father played by Ben Gazzara. And from there, we simply watch Richie deteriorate.
You see, not only was this a 70's stab at a drug scare film, this was a true story stab at a drug scare movie. And honestly, it's pretty fucking dark and sad. I will readily admit that this film, much like The New Adventures of Heidi, caught me in a mental space where I was perhaps more "open" to it than I would normally be. I was depressed. I was tired. I felt like just getting drunk and passing out, or possibly smoking weed. And given the slow development, slow burn of this, instead I sat enraptured as the events played out.
Richie is like any typical 70's kid. He hangs out with his buddies. He smokes weed. He doesn't get along very well with his dad. His mom is a bit over-sympathetic to him, his brother is younger and just stays out of his way. He develops an addiction to "reds", red pills that are barbiturates. When he's on them, he varies between laid out and unresponsive to hyper-charged and agitated. All the things the family tries seem to work at first, but whatever circumstance happens usually leads Richie back to the drugs. In the meantime, the relationship with his mother and father gets strained more and more.
What can I say? Fuck. It was dark. Ben Gazzara and the other actors do a really good job. The kid that played Richie was great. Oddly enough, the actor went on to be very well known in the voice acting world, even playing the Beast in Beauty and the Beast. The pacing is good, enough to keep us very interested. The spiral keeps deepening, and I was very much dreading where the story might go, as we can't see a way for it to end well.
Given this is based on a true story, it makes one question if some things in the film were film flaws, or if that's how they played out in real life. Many times, the father character has ways to try and make his son stop the drug use, and they pretty much get dropped. He taps his phone and records drug trades. He threatens to use drug counseling. There's others. Most of these are dropped, and only once does he call the cops, of course it's the one time the son isn't on drugs. Why not call the cops one of the million other times, when it's clear he's already ON the drugs?
The end is dark. I made a mistake, where I forgot the title of this movie, and looked at it. I mean, come on. The spoiler for the movie is in the TITLE of the film! How he dies is significantly dark, and only made for a lot of fucked up shit in this family in the future, I'm sure.
So I mean, really, what is there to say? It was a actually good, actually affecting movie. And I could only make minor complaints, the truth was I felt a lot for the characters, and it kinda sucks that stuff like this happens. Life huh? Thanks movie. I was already depressed. Didn't need ya to make it worse. I give it.... sigh... I don't know. 5? 4? 4.5?
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