How low can you go?

Rating: 8/10 (21 May 2012)

As the credits rolled, I took a deep breath, and I thought "what a moving film!". I tried to recommend it to friends, but I couldn't bring up the words "this is a beautiful film". This is an intense, stirring, thought-provoking film - yes. It is about doing drugs. About being addicted, into the deep pits of obsession.
It is the mark of a great director to provoke the sensorial impressions of this film: quick frame succession, surreal look, obsessive soundtrack - the imagery and sound closely explore what we think we know about hallucinogens.
The question I found emerging as the film moved on was "how low can you go?". It is a crescendo - of seasons, of scenes, of pace. And the answer the film gave me was "lower, and lower, and lower..." - addiction has no end to how much human degradation it can bring.