Permanent Midnight (1998)

Interesting, slow, depressing

Based on the autobiography of Jerry Stahl who is playhed by a very subdued Ben Stiller(no humour here). The cast is rounded off by owen Wilson and Genine Gerafalo as well as Elizabeth Hurley. It is essentially a movie about a writer who goes from small town nobody to big stardom writing for Alf and other 1980s comedy shows, but his downfall comes through heroin addiction. This is mostly a chronicle of this downfall, his shakes and endless search for another hit. It is tragic but eventually the viewer stops caring, his life is not so interesting and it is not that compelling a story. It is mostly just depressing, wathcing Stahl be arrested while driving high with his child in the seat next to him.

Not that great a film, but a true breakthrough role for Stiller.

Seth J. Frantzman


August 3, 2007

Maria Bello as Savior; Amen Brother!

This little movie, "Permanent Midnight," almost makes it. I had a four-star review going for it right until the final scene where what could have been a capstone moment, simply misses the mark. When Brad Delp, God rest his soul, former lead singer of Boston belts out in "Peace of Mind","Now everybody's got advice they just keep on givin' / Doesn't mean too much to me / Lot's of people out to make believe their livin' / Can't decide who they should be," I think he must have had a movie like "Permanent Midnight" in mind. The movie really has an identity crisis going...is it a redemptive tale, is it a cautionary tale that screams drugs just aren't all that great, or is it a love story? The last scene where Jerry Stahl, aptly played by Ben Stiller, leaves one lost wishing that the movie had at least been one of those stories...not vainly attempting, and failing, to be all of them.

The movie is cool enough. The soundtrack is steady, not stellar. Does it glamorize the LA drug scene? Not really. When Stiller's character shoots up heroin again and again in bathroom stalls or wherever he can score a hit, and then sprays the bloody backwash from the needle over the bathroom ceiling the message is pretty clear...no one you know, love, care about should be coming any where near the drug scene. Heroin and any other addictive illegal substances (and some legal ones too) has this innate potential to completely and utterly destroy lives. As a drug movie, "Permanent Midnight," falls just short of telling the tale of complete and other woe. Movies that come to mind that really hit home the cautionary aspect of powerful anti-drug messaging are, "Requiem for a Dream," which has several scenes that want to make you look away from the screen; Steven Soderbergh's excellent social and political commentary on America's drug war and drug culture, "Traffic," and lastly but not leastly the movie with Nicolas Cage and Elizabeth Shue in Las Vegas where Cage ends up drinking himself right to death. Those films work. Those films are clear in their message, powerful in their story. "Permanent Midnight," starts to work on several levels but ultimately falls short in them all.

Ben Stiller turns in a very engaging performance as the Jewish writer, brilliant in his writing, but with a habit the size of "Utah." When I first read that on the jacket descriptor..."the size of Utah," I thought it might be one of those Mormon-themed flicks that seem to be so popular of the last 2-3 years...but alas, "Permanent Midnight," has really nothing to do with Mormons and everything to do with drugs and love. Elizabeth Hurley is well Elizabeth Hurley. Maria Bello is one of the finest actresses out there continuing to score in powerful roles in minor films so her career flies under the radar but she seems to pick and choose roles that work for her. If the movie were a redemptive love story where Bello's ex-junky character creates some true catharsis for Stahl I would have been right there. But as it is...I say look somewhere else film buffs for your love story, drug story, and ultra cool hip story. "Permanent Midnight," tries to be all these things in doses but in the end leaves you searching for blue veins...not with needles mind you but to find a pulse. ...mmw March 29, 2007

Episodic but riveting

Movies rarely hold the same allure as the books from which they arise and that's the case here. "Permanent Midnight" portrays the harrowing experinece of a television script writer that was also a heroin addict.

Ben Stiller stars as Jerry Stahl, whose autobiography is the basis for the film. Stahl appears in a brief role as a physician treating his own (through Stiller) addiction. This is an interesting insofar as the physician -- the real life drug addict -- is very downbeat about Stiller's chance of kicking heroin for its substitute.

Elsewhere, a lot of today's A-list actors -- Owen Wilson (who had a middle initial in the credits), Maria Bello (who got great reviews in "A History of Violence"), Elizabeth Hurley, Sandra Oh, Cheryl Ladd and Jeanene Garofolo -- lend a lot of credibility to this episodic treatment. Probably most riveting, and most revolting, are Stiller's regular scenes of drug use...during breaks in meetings at work, in the bathroom during parties, while taking care of his child. In another scene, he interviews for a job with a TV producer while high. The flick concludes with sound bytes from interviews Stahl did with TV talking heads (Morey and Tom Snyder) with Stiller digitally added to the scene.

I thought Stiller transformed himself into a serious actor for the role and the good supporting cast clearly helps; still the film is too episodic to score higher than average. This biopic is mature fare and sometimes very difficult to watch, especially a scene where Stiller, in the car with an infant, mainlines heroin through a vein in his neck. It also loses points since none of the actors show any signs of age as its chronology progresses.

Still, there's often something interesting going on or something you probably haven't seen before by such name actors. There was a lot more drug use here than in "Trainspotting" where the cast was compprised 100 percent of heroin addicts. So check this out if you're up to it; you might find it rewarding. January 11, 2007

Permanent boredom!.

Ben Stiller stars in this independent drama film about a top Hollywood scriptwriter Jerry Stahl who appears to have the perfect life he has lots of cash, an attractive wife and a baby on the way but Jerry harbours a secret drug addiction and when things get realy bad he checks himself into a rehab clinic. Whilst there he meets Kitty (Maria Bello) and together they plan for the future, first of all we have all ready seen better movies about drug addiction that ruins a persons entire career and life so what makes this film better? well absolutely nothing the acting was realy bad and the storyline doesn't seem to go anywhere. The character Jerry Stahl is the same loser junkie at the end you think that this guy would learn a lesson by not making the same mistakes but it just seems pointless I'd rather watch Zoolander. April 27, 2006

Requiem for a Permanent Midnight with Jesus' Son and the Drugstore Cowboys

Admittedly I'm guessing here, but it would seem that the lurid fascination of drug-themed films has diminished considerably in recent years. Or if I can only speak for myself, I guess I can say that their fascination for me has dwindled. When PERMANENT MIDNIGHT came out (to mixed reviews) in 1998, I made a mental note that, while I probably wouldn't want to pay theater prices to see the movie, I'd make a point to catch it when it came out on video.

Well, it's taken me over five years to get around to finally seeing it. Whether it was those mixed reviews or the fact that films about substance abuse have lost their ability to shock--or for that matter, to illuminate--I can't say. But this is one case where the (majority of the) critics had pretty much gotten it right. The movie IS worth seeing--mainly for the acting and for a few startlingly effective scenes--but it's probably not a must-see and certainly not a "must own" for most viewers.

As a supposed "breakthrough" role for Ben Stiller, the results are also kind of mixed. Yes, he did pull off this demanding role, impressively so; and no, he hasn't done all that much dramatically since. He's been in some very good films (ROYAL TENENBAUMS,especially) but hasn't had the chance to stretch significantly since PERMANENT MIDNIGHT. That's a shame, but that's also show biz. He keeps working, at least.

The rest of the cast is also impressive. Elizabeth Hurley also gets a chance to prove her acting ability for once, and Maria Bello who perhaps is still best known for her years on ER, is pretty impressive in an underwritten role. (She's essentially a framing device with a heart of gold.) Owen Wilson is always worth watching. (Am I the only one who thinks he looks like a young, blond Dennis Hopper? If anyone ever wanted to do a father-son junkie movie, they'd make for perfect casting.) Janeane Garofalo and Cheryl Ladd make effective cameo appearances. And there's even a pre-GLADIATOR Connie Nielsen on board here as a rich German junkie who seems to revel in "making love" to a Jew.

It's all a little disjointed, which given the story's source is a recovering junkie, makes a certain dramatic sense. Subplots--some kind of intriguing--are introduced, only to remain undeveloped. (I was curious, for instance, as to just how and when that marriage of convenience to Liz Hurley's character developed into a love match.) That kind of sketchiness also makes a certain kind of druggy sense.

I guess if you want the details, you need to check out the Jerry Stahl memoir on which the film is based. That is of course one measure by which we can evaluate any film from an unfamiliar literary source (and I must confess that I had never heard of the book before--leastwise not that I recall). If the film makes the viewer want to read the book, then it's more than done its job.

PERMANENT MIDNIGHT isn't a bad film. On the other hand, it did not make me want to read the book.






December 4, 2005

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