I rewatched Drugstore Cowboy on Criterion, Gus Van Sant’s 1989 indie breakthrough about a group of addicts robbing pharmacies in 1971 Portland, Oregon, just scraping by on drug deals and highs. Matt Dillon, Kelly Lynch, James LeGros, and Heather Graham play the crew, and this movie definitely feels like a precursor to the 1990s indie movie boom, it feels more like a 90s movie than an 80s movie. It’s a weirdly comfortable movie to watch despite the story of desperate addicts, likely because they feel more like scrappy losers in a darkly comic story.
Matt Dillon is really good at playing losers and dumb guys, like guys who peaked in high school as handsome popular guys, then didn’t have the brains to go further in life beyond getting external validation from popularity. He transcended well from being a Brat Pack-era teen idol to a talented actor not afraid to poke fun at himself.
I like how others react to the group, like Dillon’s mom hiding their valuables when they come over, or this scene, where Dillon is in rehab and has pretty much nothing to his name, no identity or job history, essentially being a vagrant with his only paper trail being his priors.
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