Narcotic: A dusty, weird trip into old-timey misery

Is this thing worth watching?

If you have a soft spot for pre-code exploitation movies that think they’re teaching you a valuable life lesson, then yeah, maybe. If you’re looking for a tight drama, keep moving. People who enjoy watching 1930s morality plays will get a kick out of it. People who hate preachy scripts and acting that feels like it’s being projected to the back row of a theater will probably want to turn it off after ten minutes.

The whole thing feels like a fever dream that someone had after eating too much cheese. Our guy, the medical student, just falls apart so fast it’s almost funny. One minute he’s got a bright future, the next he’s hanging out in a carnival freakshow. Talk about a career pivot.

The pacing is all over the place. Sometimes it crawls through a scene, and then suddenly we’re at a swanky party that looks like it was filmed in someone’s living room. It lacks the polish of a bigger studio picture, but that’s exactly why I kept watching. There’s a raw, dusty quality to it.

There’s this one sequence in a brothel that feels weirdly sterile, like they were trying to be edgy but were terrified of the censors. The lighting is just one harsh bulb doing all the heavy lifting. It’s funny how a movie about 'the dangers of drugs' spends so much time showing you the exact environments you’re supposed to avoid.

Bits and pieces

• The dialogue is stiff enough to serve as a bridge.
• I’m still not sure why a medical student ends up in a freakshow, but who am I to judge?
• The ending is so sudden it feels like the projector just gave up.
• It feels a lot less sophisticated than something like Kean ou Désordre et génie, which makes sense, but the contrast is funny.

Is it a good movie? Not really. But it’s definitely a thing that exists. It feels like a relic from a time when movies were just trying to scare people straight for a nickel. You can almost feel the filmmakers sweating, trying to make sure the audience knows that smoking opium is bad. We get it, guys. We get it.

The actor playing the lead has this wide-eyed stare he uses whenever things get 'intense.' It starts as a performance choice and ends up just being his default face. There’s something charmingly amateur about the whole affair. It’s definitely not as grand as King Lear, but that’s not really the point, is it?

Sometimes you just want to watch a guy make bad decisions for eighty minutes. If that’s your vibe, you’ll have a good time. Just don’t expect to walk away feeling like you’ve learned a deep, profound truth about humanity. You’ll just walk away feeling like you need a shower. 🧼