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The Boost
The Boost is an overripe melodrama from 1988 about the horrors of drug addiction that actually made its place in cinematic history during production.
Based on a book by Ben Stein, this is the story of Lenny Brown (James Woods) an upwardly mobile New Yorker who gives up hustling tax shelters when he is offered a job selling commercial real estate in Los Angeles. Within a year, Lenny is driving a Mercedes and buying a plane, but when business begins to start going sour, Lenny and his wife, Linda (Sean Young) find solace in cocaine.
This movie made plenty of headlines back in '88 before its release because of the constant feuding between James Woods and Sean Young. The tension between the stars is visible here but it is really only the tip of the iceberg of what is wrong with this film.
Like so many films about addiction, this film addresses the problem but doesn't really address the solution. We watch Lenny sink into the quicksand of addiction and as things get worse and worse, refuses to admit that cocaine has anything to do with it. He then makes the mistake that the solution is substitution...the idea that getting off one drug is to use something else that might not be as harmful. The movie also perpetrates the myth that addiction can be handled by quitting cold turkey. The primary problem with this movie is that it knocks us over the head with the consequences of addiction, but never addresses rehabilitation.
The story also takes way too long to unfold here...we are thirty minutes into the film before cocaine is even mentioned and it's another fifteen minutes before we actually see any one doing the drug. Though, the first thirty minutes or so do take an accurate look at a different addiction, money, and how it can change people. Maybe a look at that addiction might have made a more interesting one than the melodramatic mess that this film degenerates into.
Woods' performance is way over the top and Young is just whiny and annoying. Steven Hill has some solid moments as Woods' new boss as does John Kapelos as the guy who gets Lenny hooked, but this film only delivers half the message it should and is, therefore, only half as effective as it should be.
The Boost is an overripe melodrama from 1988 about the horrors of drug addiction that actually made its place in cinematic history during production.
Based on a book by Ben Stein, this is the story of Lenny Brown (James Woods) an upwardly mobile New Yorker who gives up hustling tax shelters when he is offered a job selling commercial real estate in Los Angeles. Within a year, Lenny is driving a Mercedes and buying a plane, but when business begins to start going sour, Lenny and his wife, Linda (Sean Young) find solace in cocaine.
This movie made plenty of headlines back in '88 before its release because of the constant feuding between James Woods and Sean Young. The tension between the stars is visible here but it is really only the tip of the iceberg of what is wrong with this film.
Like so many films about addiction, this film addresses the problem but doesn't really address the solution. We watch Lenny sink into the quicksand of addiction and as things get worse and worse, refuses to admit that cocaine has anything to do with it. He then makes the mistake that the solution is substitution...the idea that getting off one drug is to use something else that might not be as harmful. The movie also perpetrates the myth that addiction can be handled by quitting cold turkey. The primary problem with this movie is that it knocks us over the head with the consequences of addiction, but never addresses rehabilitation.
The story also takes way too long to unfold here...we are thirty minutes into the film before cocaine is even mentioned and it's another fifteen minutes before we actually see any one doing the drug. Though, the first thirty minutes or so do take an accurate look at a different addiction, money, and how it can change people. Maybe a look at that addiction might have made a more interesting one than the melodramatic mess that this film degenerates into.
Woods' performance is way over the top and Young is just whiny and annoying. Steven Hill has some solid moments as Woods' new boss as does John Kapelos as the guy who gets Lenny hooked, but this film only delivers half the message it should and is, therefore, only half as effective as it should be.