The interviews with real addicts in the film I think are telling. The film strives not necessarily to be compassionate, but to avoid a simple condemnation of life in a drug-induced spiral.
We are introduced to the main character (and actor/writer/director) and he's an over-achieving everyman extraordinaire at work pitted against the clinical idiot doctor, easy fodder for a audience sympathy, but he plays it well. That is then followed by scenes of the same man trotting out on the softball field to see his effectively adopted father/sponsor/savior. This character while not on top of the world is at least in harmony with it, and we the audience are placed in his pocket.
But his life, and that pocket, unravel.....and what compels us most to stay with him I think is a strong DIY effort on the film, that bursts with creativity where a simpler troupe would have been bludgeoned by a limited budget. I appreciate the effort, there is panache and a pretty cranking soundtrack at times too. But it's still a drug spiral movie.
While there's no doubt that drugs eat away the soul of country like this role ate away at Marty Sader on screen, the tale feels so familiar and ill-fated that it is tough to recommend.
One side note, the title is interesting, besides the drug reference and more for an even higher high that was sparked long after this film. Looking for a recent interview with Sader, he confessed the title simply came from a Robert Plant song, but Sader sees a more mighty hand possibly guiding that choice then and more certainly his life since.
Sader, like his character Julius, strikes me as a sincere seeker, good luck to him. I appreciated this film more as an introduction to him. Like his character in the job at the mental health clinic, perhaps Marty feels out of sync with the Hollywood scene. I like the idea of characters in films that are at risk, not strictly protected by the man or woman behind the camera, but if he elevates his films to a Most High director, I'm not sure I'll follow him to the pastor's pasture.
