Deliciously Dark and Arty

Rating: 9/10 (7 August 2015)

Forget about gritty realism. This movie is about the exaggerated unrealism that lies at the core of the addictions the characters experience. Their tragic consequences are as unlikely as the dreams of grandeur they lovingly nurture. All of the flaws to realism should make it apparent to the viewer that these are not the actual circumstances, but are instead the nightmares of feeling as the dream slips away. It's a story of people desperately fighting to rise above their reality, while descending further into the murky mess of addiction. Do they really end up in the brutal condition the movie leaves them? Of course not--that is just a different kind of fantasy, the fantasy of fear that has replaced their summer fantasy of hope and belief. Some people may see this as a warning against drug use, but I see it as a movie about the danger of self-delusion.