Cocaine Angel (2006) Reviews

• *spoiler* Insulting to anyone who has been through addiction *spoiler*

  craig012007-08-27

  Actually, if you ever did Coke, it's going to be more annoying than insulting. It's the portrayal of 24 hours in the life of an ANNOYING coke addict. He rambles on, he's an idiot, he drinks too much.. yada yada. The worst part is that it's unconvincing. That's what makes it doubly annoying is that his cocaine monologues are just bad... not real at all. Maybe good to someone who has never done drugs in their life, but if you've ever been an addict or are one you will probably just laugh at him or turn it off. That guy would probably just get robbed/laughed at trying to get coke. I have to write 10 lines but there is not much more to say about this. It just made me snarl at a REALLY annoying man that I felt absolutely no compassion for. He was a talentless POS, period. *SPOILER AHEAD* I wish he would have OD'd and not the pretty girl who at least had SOMETHING to offer. Im glad it's over. Watch Requiem or Fear and Loathing. This movie sucks.

• The movie is even more pretentious than these positive reviews...

  nglazas2010-06-20

  As I watched Cocaine Angel, I couldn't help but imagine Damian Lahey fantasizing about himself as the next up and coming hot young screenwriter. He may very well be a talented writer, however, this movie is certainly not an example of that. It's painfully obvious he has never lived the life he's trying to portray in this film. It attempts to follow in the footsteps of Barfly,Permanent Midnight,Requiem for A Dream ,Basketball Diaries, etc. All of which were great films written (or based on literature written) by people who lived the life they wrote about. This seems more like a film written by a guy whose watched a lot of drug behavior in movies and TV, and perhaps even snorted a few lines in his time. But, I promise he wasn't shooting coke in any gas station bathroom with a kid in the car. Write what you know. He attempts to shock me with an oral sex scene that takes place next to a toddler, but it doesn't work. I've already seen a dead baby crawling on the ceiling to techno music in a good scene from a good movie (Trainspotting). Nice try. That and 2 consecutive overly acted overdose deaths that happen within 5 minutes of each other fail to impress. On that note, anyone who actually thinks this guy can act may need to make sure they haven't suffered any kind of recent head trauma. Him and the dreadlock guy, Mike ("My wife! I loved that bitch."), are pretty terrible. Actually, most everyone is quite awful. Really, if you think the acting is good you should probably go to the ER. If you want a gritty drug movie try some of the above mentioned films.

• Poetry of Addiction

  aprilruth992007-03-08

  We have seen it all before. We have seen it done masterfully; Requiem for a Dream, Half-Nelson, etc... We have seen it done abysmally; too many to mention. A basically likable character with once good intentions dives/falls into the depths of addiction and the world of horror that inevitably comes with it. Cocaine Angel does not have a shockingly different story to tell. Scott, a once seemingly gainfully, if not boringly employed 20-something, fully entrenched in his cocaine and alcohol addictions, struggles his way through his life in small town Florida. The story is simple, but the telling raises this film into the ranks of its austere predecessors. It takes place over just a few days of Scott's life. They are not the first few days in his downward spiral, and they are not the last. Cocaine Angel is a slice of life, in the most poetic sense. This slice is a metaphor for not only Scott's whole existence but a metaphor for the nature of addiction itself. Damien Lahey's portrayal of Scott, while on one hand almost uncomfortably truthful, is peppered with surprisingly poignant beauty. One moment Lahey as Scott is all ticks and paranoia, fiending for a fix, the next he enthralls with a heart-breaking allegory of his past. Soon to be released for DVD distribution, Cocaine Angel is a testament to true Independent Film.

• This movie is about 24 hours in the life of a drug addict.

  ladywithafan3212006-04-10

  Cocaine Angel premiered at our Sarasota Film Festival this past weekend. It was an experience to watch as I personally have experienced the dark side as well. I thought the 24 hour concept worked perfectly in the context of the story. The synopsis accurately reflects the content of the movie. Anyone that has ever smoked crack or used needles may find it hard to watch; especially if they are recovering addicts. There are many stories about the essence of drug addiction and many ways to express how it begins, what happens and the unhappy endings that usually result from crazed binges and excessive partying. It was a pleasure to meet Michael Tully & Damian Lahey as well. When you do drugs, anything can happen in a 24 hour period. Any time you change the scenery, you can go from bad to worse in the drug experience. This film showed just that; also it kept it real! The actors were believable as well as the story. This movie needs to be out in the public eye; Get's me excited to get working on my own project!

• Difficult, rough, gritty and honest!

  cinemactivist2008-02-14

  "Cocaine Angel" is a difficult film to watch and a difficult film to review. Therein lies both its virtue and its short-coming. This is a rough, gritty, honest portrayal of the life of crack addicts and cocaine junkies – not to mention your assorted pill-poppers – that opens very graphically and shocks you into their world. Writer and main actor Damian Lahey takes you places that most "average" people don't want to go or even visit for an afternoon, the world of people whose only thought is their next high. These people are rude, ungrateful of any help offered, spiraling toward the abyss fully conscious of the trajectory. For anyone who has lived in urban or suburban American and known anyone who was a serious substance abuser, the ring of truth tolls throughout this feature film. That is what makes it such a difficult film to watch and to review. While admiring the honesty portrayed on screen, one cannot but come away from this film feeling soiled and depressed. The film is the debut directorial effort of Michael Tully and made the festival run from Rotterdam to South-by-Southwest (SXSW,) Jacksonville (FL) where the film is set, Sarasota (FL) and the Raindance film festival. My fellow film reviewers, like Dennis Lim at the Village Voice and the un-bylined reviewer at Filmmaker Magazine have hailed the work as a "minor masterpiece." I shan't go that far. I will quote Filmmaker Magazine's take on the piece though. They wrote, "…caked in legitimate, unforgettable grime, one that makes similar Hollywood efforts seem as fake as an orange juice commercial." No argument from this quarter with that assessment. This is an unremittingly grim picture of the addicted with no holds barred. The few bits of humor in it are left-handed. For example, Lahey limps through the film wearing one shoe, while his other foot is bare - except for a bloody makeshift bandage he wears as he hobbles and bobbles through his so-called life. And then there is Mary, his putative lover, the thematic cocaine angel of the title. She is a sometimes hooker, hoping to get back to see her daughter who lives in another state. Mary is harsh, crude, angry and unrepentant. We are led to believe that there is some love between she and her loser boyfriend, Scott, portrayed by Lahey, but the signs of love are few and far between. I don't do spoilers in reviews. I leave it to you to decide if you'd like to see this film and how the tale plays out. Follow its tawdry twists and turns if you dare look into the dark world of addiction. Don't expect to come away from it without being a bit taken aback and chastened. By Rod Amis a CinemActivist