Grade:  B+

Director:  Ted Demme		Released:  April 2001
Writer:  David McKenna		MPAA Rating:  R
Players:  Johnny Depp		Running time:  124 minutes

Ratings System

Johnny Depp not getting nominated for any acting awards for Blow is a serious crime.  Take a look at the work he does in this movie, he's fantastic.  Depp portrays George Jung, an entrepreneurial cocaine importer who kind of falls into the business.  That's what makes Depp so good, he plays the character as sort of a dull everyman, not as some sort of crazed, big ego'd drug czar.  And if you've ever met someone who lives for drugs you know that they are most dull indeed.  Some would say that having a dull character as the focus of the film makes the film itself dull, when actually it's quite the opposite, it's fascinating to watch this no-ambition, pot-smokin, beer-drinkin soul build an empire.

I'll make the concession that cocaine is not a light topic.  America was (and is) ravaged by drugs, and families were (and are) destroyed due to the pain that addiction causes.  Those hard truths don't play a role in this movie.  Jung is a self-centered man who sees the business as a high stakes game, not an illegal activity.  Which, I imagine, is very much how drug kingpins have always viewed the business.  They get into it for the money, for their own personal benefit, not because their goal in life is to destroy people's lives.

Blow is a very good film, I'm disappointed that it seems to have come and gone without any real notice.

- crocoPuffs