Gambling, Gods and LSD

This bilious garbage is like a high schooler's attempt to recreate "Koyaanisqatsi". Many of the same visual motifs are copied (poorly), right down to the cave drawings in the American southwest. From filming the drug addict buddy smoking a cigar in the dark by a Toronto river, to the endless cliché of filming in Las Vegas, this movie is an empty, ham-handed attempt at philosophical discourse on our culture, times, and humanity. Narrated in a monotone voice that is groping to sound worldly yet detached, enlightened yet skeptical, not cool yet cool, this film is the worst kind of self-indulgence. It strives to be profound at every turn, but it ultimately comes off as profound and sophisticated as a whoopie cushion.

This film apparently won an award as Best Documentary in 2003 in Canada. I cringe to think of the competition it beat out. Leave this windy mess on the video store shelf, and rent CUBE, TREED MURRAY, WAYDOWNTOWN, LAST NIGHT, or BARNONE. Gambling, Gods, and LSD is a vapid waste of time, film, and no doubt Canadian grant money. There are many other films that do a much better job of representing the wonderful cinema being made in Canada. This crap is not.