Directed by Gus Van Sant • 1989 • United States
Starring Matt Dillon, Kelly Lynch, James Remar

One of the most honest films ever made about addiction, Gus Van Sant’s second feature confirmed his place among the leading independent auteurs of his generation. A coolly lyrical portrait of life on the margins, DRUGSTORE COWBOY features a perfectly calibrated performance from Matt Dillon as the leader of a band of junkies who roam the Pacific Northwest in the 1970s robbing drug stores to score prescription pills. Punctuating the story (based on an autobiographical novel by James Fogle) with moments of woozy beauty and deadpan humor, Van Sant evokes the rapturous highs and crushing lows of life under the influence.