Portland, Oregon, 1971. Bob Hughes is the charismatic leader of a peculiar quartet, formed by his wife, Dianne, and another couple, Rick and Nadine, who skillfully steal from drugstores and hospital medicine cabinets in order to appease their insatiable need for drugs. But neither fun nor luck last forever.
All the actors are used expertly, but it's Burroughs, cropping up near the end, who articulates the film's sociopolitical moral in a contemporary context.
– Jonathan Rosenbaum,
Chicago Reader,
20 Aug 2010
fresh:
No previous drug-themed film has the honesty or originality of Gus Van Sant's drama Drugstore Cowboy.
– Variety Staff,
Variety,
6 Jul 2010
fresh:
Though hardly earth-shakingly original, Van Sant's low-budget movie takes a cool, contemplative and sometimes comic look at American drug-culture.
– Geoff Andrew,
Time Out,
26 Jan 2006
fresh:
The film takes us so deeply into this shabby, transient world that we feel its texture -- both its scary thrills and its bleak, fatalistic uncertainty.
– Stephen Holden,
New York Times,
20 May 2003
fresh:
The movie stars Matt Dillon, in one of the great recent American movie performances.