Junkie Heaven (Short)
Starring Joseph A. Halsey, Sal Rendino, Myles Humphus
Directed by Steve Sage Goldberg
Addiction is, without a doubt, nothing to joke about – it ruins lives and renders the user a mere shell of his/her former self. But what if you had a second chance to right the wrongs, all in exchange for a task to be completed, regardless of whether or not it had otherworldly implications?
Steve Sage Goldberg’s gritty, grimy, and graphic depiction of an addict’s attempted reprieve, titled Junkie Heaven, spotlights heroin freak Doyle (Halsey), a former soldier who shoots up in order to help him cope with the friendly-fire incidents he suffered through while serving his country in Iraq. The added implication of PTSD in the modern soldier is certainly a sobering one, and Halsey serves the role well in his depiction.
He has (apparently) just loaded up his last tainted spoonful of the brown-train, and it’s ended his despondent existence–that is, until a shady “angel” if you will (Rendino) makes Doyle an offer to safely travel his way through to the afterlife. His side of the deal? All he has to do is make the local heroin dealer pay for his sins, retrieve a knife that is owned by the pusher, and deliver it to his guardian… sounds like a walk in the park, right?
Now we all know that things won’t flow so smoothly, and frankly, if we knew that they would, WHY would we be watching in the first place? Goldberg uses the most of his filming locations in order to provide a claustrophobic look at a user’s shrinking world – pretty powerful stuff contained within 18 minutes. Worth a look if you have the time.
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Film
Categorized:Reviews
