IMDb RATING
6.2/10
8.3K
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A comedy writer struggles to overcome his addiction to heroin while putting his professional and personal life in danger.A comedy writer struggles to overcome his addiction to heroin while putting his professional and personal life in danger.A comedy writer struggles to overcome his addiction to heroin while putting his professional and personal life in danger.
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Probably one of the best movies about drugs that I've ever seen. An excellent performance by Ben Stiller in one of his most serious roles. If you want to see a movie that portrays the life-style associated with drugs accurately, watch this movie.
I think Ben Stiller is one of the most talented comic actors currently working, even though he is often in awful movies (e.g. 'Zoolander', 'The Suburbans'). 'Permanent Midnight' is one of the best movies he has been involved with and features what is arguably his single finest performance. Based on the autobiography of TV hack writer Jerry Stahl, this is a smart, fresh and blackly humorous look at addiction and Hollywood. Stiller has a fine supporting cast here, especially his buddies and frequent co-stars Owen Wilson ('Bottle Rocket') and Janeane Garofolo ('Reality Bites'), the amazingly charismatic star-in-the-making Peter Greene ('Laws Of Gravity'), and comedy veteran Fred Willard ('Best In Show'), who all have small but memorable roles. Hell, even Liz Hurley and Cheryl Ladd are good in this, believe it or not. 'Permanent Midnight' was, like so many other good movies that don't pander to a mass audience, a box office flop, but will hopefully find a larger audience in years to come via video and DVD. I think it is one of the most underrated movies of the last ten years, and highly recommend it.
Most of the drug-use scenes were fairly realistic. Been there and back myself, so to tell you the truth, nothing I saw in the movie made me wince, although there was a lot to relate to. There's a scene where - this really isn't a spoiler, given the context of the movie - where Jerry dumps some pills out of a prescription bottle, and they look exactly like the kind of pills they're supposed to be. Nice attention to detail. One thing that movies never quite get right or, perhaps like this one, simply choose to ignore, are the details of how one actually turns one's life around from being addicted to recovering, and this movie was no exception. We know in the beginning that Jerry has been through rehab, but that process itself, which may I say ain't exactly a cakewalk - and I mean you have to be clean before you can go through it, remains rather mysterious. Oh well, whatever, an interesting, entertaining movie that held my interest for its running time. Some usage scenes might be a bit upsetting to the non-anointed, although probably nothing quite so hard to take as in Requiem For A Dream.
Not bad, though not particularly memorable or resonant. So-so script with terse, witty dialogue - David Veloz never wants for a good one-liner. I was never bored, but it would be an overstatement to say I cared about the character Jerry Stahl, either. It's hard to imagine, though, anyone bringing him to life more fully or entertainingly than Ben Stiller. He is compulsively watchable, and without him I think this one might've been DOA. I guess it boils down to this: Is it just me, or is a guy who scores prime writing jobs and prime women while he's a hopeless smack addict inherently unsympathetic? (And the impression I get from the writing and casting is that we are very much meant to feel in some way for Jerry.)
Although the movie is uneven in both some performances and situations, it's worth watching Ben Stiller powerful characterization of Jerry Stahl. There are scenes very difficult to watch due to extreme use of drugs. It's not for the average audiences. If you like to see good acting this one is for you to watch
Did you know
- TriviaThe fictional television show "Mr. Chompers" was based on author Jerry Stahl's experience writing for ALF (1986). The other television series was based on Stahl's experiences on Twin Peaks (1990) and Moonlighting (1985), and its star was apparently based on Cybill Shepherd.
- GoofsWhen Jerry is at the methadone clinic, the doctor is checking boxes on a form he's filling out. The questions he asks Jerry do not match the boxes he checks.
- Quotes
Jerry Stahl: [Narrating] People always ask, "What's the worst thing heroin drove you to do?". I always answer, "showing up on Maury."
- Alternate versionsThe DVD features 3 deleted scenes:
- A wasted Jerry hitting on Owen Wilson's character's girlfriend and being thrown out.
- A long haired Jerry working for Hustler magazine.
- A stoned Jerry buying a muffin and being beaten with a baseball bat by the store clerk.
- SoundtracksOverwhelming
Performed and Written by Art Alexakis
Produced by Art Alexakis (as A.P. Alexakis) and Paul Fox
Recorded at A&M
Published by Irving Music, Inc./Evergleam Music (BMI)
Courtesy of Capitol Records, Inc.
Under license from EMI Music Special Markets
- How long is Permanent Midnight?Powered by Alexa
Details
Box office
- Gross US & Canada
- $1,171,001
- Opening weekend US & Canada
- $260,562
- Sep 20, 1998
- Gross worldwide
- $1,171,001
- Runtime
- 1h 28m(88 min)
- Color
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 1.85 : 1
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