Narcotic (1933) - Dwain Esper, Vival Sodar't

The marihuana cigarettes are mine!

Well, don’t smoke too many . . . or you might get The Ding!

This raucous, weird and very entertaining exploitation film clocks in at a lean 57 minutes, not even a full hour. In that time, we are introduced to upstanding medical student William Davis (or Davies, continuity not being one of this movie’s preoccupations) and then, thanks to the demon of Opium, he falls prey to a life of wanton hedonism and is then, in pretty short order (like I said, it’s only 57 minutes), driven into depravity, madness, financial ruin and, ultimately, yes, death by suicide.  

Now this movie is Pre-Code, of course, but it’s also quite a bit beyond that. It’s beyond even lighter exploitation fare like the always popular Reefer Madness. A couple of examples might be instructive. As the movie kind of starts to get going, it wants to make sure we understand just how upstanding and competent a doctor our main character is. What better way to do that than by, less than five minutes into the movie, just smash cutting us into graphic stock footage of a Caesarean Section? Back in the day, before the Internet, this was how you gave people cheap thrills. It’s pure shock value and very trashy, but it still kinda lands, especially when you don’t know it’s coming. For another example, Dwain Esper had gotten ahold of the corpse of Elmer McCurdy, an Oklahoma based bank robber and he used said corpse in this movie to stand in for a drug addict’s corpse. He also toted around McCurdy’s mummified remains when he took his movies out on the road and used it for advertising. So, yeah, this movie has AN ACTUAL CORPSE used for set dressing. If you’re looking for real exploitation filmmaking, look no further than Dwain Esper who, by God, will make you walk by a literal corpse if you want a ticket to his movie.

At this point, some of the more morally squeamish members of the audience are free to politely head for the exits and I don’t exactly blame them. When does exploitation cross the line into actual immorality? I’ve never really thought about whether or not graverobbing is where I’d draw that line, but it seems like a pretty good place. But, if you stick around for the movie, you will get a lot of weird, WTF entertainment and quite a few laughs. There’s a hilariously funny “cocaine party” at one point. There’s also a scene where one of our characters ventures down into a sort of red light district. One of the sex workers absolutely brought the house down in my viewing when she drawled, in the most tawdry and unsettling way the words have ever been spoken, “Come on over . . . I’ll DO YOUR LAAAAUUUUUNDRY.” Genuinely disturbing.

Is this movie for you? You probably know by now. And, just in case it makes you feel any better, the dear departed Elmer McCurdy was finally decently laid to rest in Guthrie, Oklahoma, after an astounding 66 years being displayed at carnivals, side shows and in the occasional exploitation movie. RIP, Elmer. We’ll always have . . . this movie? I guess. 3 ½ out of 4 stars.

tl;dr – wacky exploitation movie remains weird, genuinely shocking and raucously entertaining as it details the perils of drug use; not just another typical Pre-Code movie. 3 ½ stars.  

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The Drama (2026) - Kristoffer Borgli

It’s nice to meet you, Charlie.

It’s nice to meet you, Emma.

For my money, Robert Pattinson is the most consistently interesting and compelling actor of his generation. Sometime after getting all that Twilight cash, he seemingly decided to just do whatever he wants and he’s made increasingly excellent choices since then and given great performances in a staggering variety of movies. So I’m always down to check out what he’s doing next. So I went into this movie pretty and I’m glad I did.

Charlie and Emma, played by Pattinson and Zendaya, are a young couple counting down the days until their wedding; they seem genuinely in love and genuinely happy. And then, in a decision that can only be called ill-advised, they and a couple of their friends decide it would be fun to get a little drunk and share the worst things they’ve ever done. No spoilers from me on these revelations, but suffice it to say that Emma’s got a banger of a secret and suddenly, mere days before their wedding, Charlie’s in a real tail-spin, not sure what to think about the sweet girl he thought he knew and how to reconcile that with the secret she shared.

What follows is an increasingly unhinged, pitch-black comedy of unraveling. We get to watch Charlie and Emma fall apart as individuals and also fall apart as a couple and, for a fun bonus, their little friend group also may never recover. So, it’s a kind of exploration of all the ways people and relationships can come unglued when assumptions and expectations are shattered in a surprising way. The script is razor sharp and incredibly funny. The cast is really excellent. Pattinson is, as always, brilliant; he’s a bit awkward at the best of times and the way he meltsdown into a kind of neurotic mania is nothing short of amazing. Zendaya gives probably her best performance to date here; and I’m not a hater, I’ve liked her in plenty of other things. But here, she’s asked to kind of be the wounded heart of the movie and she finds real pain amidst the gruesome comedy. Alana Haim and Mamadou Athie are both really great as the friends who spur the ill advised admissions. Alana Haim in particular hits some new heights as a performer. Prior to this she’s certainly been charismatic and good enough in her movies, but she really lets it loose with this one and she’s fantastic. Hailey Benton Gates has a small, but very funny, supporting role as a tightly wound co-worker of Charlie’s. And I have to throw props to Jeremy Levick, an actor who shows up as a wedding DJ. He’s in exactly one scene, less than five minutes of the movie, but he’s a perfect example of the old “no small parts” adage. He understands the tone writer-director Kristoffer Borgli is going for as well as anybody here does and he just knocks his single scene appearance right out of the park with some gut-bustingly funny line deliveries.

I gather there’s been some controversy around the movie and, sure, it’s a movie that intends to be provocative in its choice of subject matter and the way it mines that subject matter for cringey humor. But ultimately I felt like the movie ended up doing what it set out to do. It’s a cringe-inducingly awkward, darkly funny movie and, genuinely, it’s not as crushingly nihilistic or as shallow as some people have made it out to be. It won’t be to everyone’s tastes, that’s for sure. But, man, it worked for me. 4 stars.

tl;dr – a fantastic cast brings a caustically funny and pitch black script to life in this provocative and ultimately absolutely exhilarating thrill ride of a movie. 4 stars.

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