I don't write reviews very often, but since this movie only has two at the time of writing this (June 2025), I'll share what I think.
Throughout the movie, we could see how addiction can affect not only the person who's addicted, but also their family. Jade (one of the main characters) couldn't really do anything worthwhile in her life because she always had to be there for Max, her brother who's addicted to... crack - I think? We don't actually find out what he's addicted to, just about some of the effects it has on him. We also don't know what's fueling his addiction, other than that it feels good to use (my assumption is that it's fueled by some childhood trauma combined with other mental health issues such as anxiety or depression). On the one hand we could see how hopeless, scary and upsetting it is to watch someone you love destroy themselves, on the other just how selfless, strong and loving you have to be to keep on trying to help them. Just like Jade's friend Tegen said in the movie, sometimes you, however, can't help them - it's their responsibility to take care of themselves, and forcing someone to get clean usually leads to failure (the movie sort of played with this idea and left us wondering about what was going to happen).
For the most part, the movie was depressing, but I think that comes with handling such a heavy topic such as addiction. The ending, however, was not depressing, and even though it was open-ended, it offered some amount of hope which I liked.
The acting was great - very realistic and captivating.
The soundtrack I honestly didn't pay much attention to which could mean it served its purpose well but I'm not sure.
I have to say the movie was dragging a bit, it was too slow-paced. At times I'd feel bored - I think cutting out a few seconds here and there would have helped the movie a lot.
I also think more could have been done with this topic - the plot was a bit too thin. Maybe including more from Jade's life or Max's life before getting addicted or how he was struggling with addiction would have made the movie more interesting (this could have been done in the form of flashbacks - there was a few of them but more would have been better, in my opinion).
I probably wouldn't watch the movie again but I don't think I wasted time by giving it a watch (unlike with some other movies I've seen).
In conclusion, I think this movie is great if you want to immerse yourself in what some other people might be going through and/or if you want to cry (I did a few times), but I don't recommend it if you just want to unwind as the topic is very heavy.
