Cocaine Angel

We have seen it all before. We have seen it done masterfully; Requiem for a Dream, Half-Nelson, etc... We have seen it done abysmally; too many to mention. A basically likable character with once good intentions dives/falls into the depths of addiction and the world of horror that inevitably comes with it. Cocaine Angel does not have a shockingly different story to tell. Scott, a once seemingly gainfully, if not boringly employed 20-something, fully entrenched in his cocaine and alcohol addictions, struggles his way through his life in small town Florida. The story is simple, but the telling raises this film into the ranks of its austere predecessors. It takes place over just a few days of Scott's life. They are not the first few days in his downward spiral, and they are not the last. Cocaine Angel is a slice of life, in the most poetic sense. This slice is a metaphor for not only Scott's whole existence but a metaphor for the nature of addiction itself. Damien Lahey's portrayal of Scott, while on one hand almost uncomfortably truthful, is peppered with surprisingly poignant beauty. One moment Lahey as Scott is all ticks and paranoia, fiending for a fix, the next he enthralls with a heart-breaking allegory of his past. Soon to be released for DVD distribution, Cocaine Angel is a testament to true Independent Film.