Welcome to Charlestown, Boston (Ben Affleck's "Town" from the eponymous feature film), a place where the local "custom" of auto theft, robbery, and armored car heists are passed down from father to son and the locals don't talk to cops. Your average, which is to say normal American town has losing your virginity as a rite of passage. In Charlestown, you must commit auto theft before graduation. Allegedly. Nice place, huh?
Oxy-Morons is an indie crime drama starring David from Real World Seattle and the writer who lived it. The guy is a crook! That's what makes it realistic. It's a classic (typical?) redemption story, albeit there may have been some recidivism in real life.
This film tackles the issue from a social realist perspective, and touches on racism. The plot follows the crimes and punishment of an OxyContin addict, tracing the origins of the pill epidemic in Mass from the time it hit the market. This film is better than Reservoir For a Dream or Rush. There are lots of characters. The mother is a superb character actress also seen in Grownups 2.
The accents are real, the story is based on true events, and the settings are on location. They filmed some scenes in an abandoned prison.
What I liked about this film is the high level of realism, as compared with the vast majority of crime dramas. The anti-hero protagonist is an addict. This is what drives him to commit crimes, as in real life, rather than a swaggering outlaw or bigshot gangster like the rest of the crime pictures. Crime, like the addiction which begets it, is a bad habit, a compulsion. It's a way to make a quick buck for those at the end of their ropes. Oxy-Morons doesn't sugarcoat it. It's an epic tale.
