Most High

Remember when drug films were supposed to be watched stoned at rep theatres on school nights? Now they’re scary enough to make me quit caffeine so I don’t eventually end up talking to my vomit and stinking of gangrene in a Thai opium den. It’s probably for the best; if I hear one more person quoting Matthew McConahey from Dazed and Confused I’m going to stuff their bong with plastic shavings and strychnine.

Most High falls into the Requiem for a Dream category of horrifying drug films. Or rather, it would, if Most High were actually a drug movie. It seems marketed as such, and it does have the pre-requisite scene of a twitchy addict arguing with a cockroach. But director/co-writer/star Marty Sader’s film is essentially a character study with meth addiction as a backdrop, like a beautiful watercolour painted on soiled bandages. Sader plays Julius, an orderly at a mental hospital who is gradually drawn into the seedy world of drug abuse when his guardian dies.

The main action of the film is interspersed with painful black and white interview segments with drug addicts and family members, which adds to the over-arching sense of doom and depression that binds Most High together. Rarely bogged down in flashy camera work or standard drug movie razor-blade editing, the film’s strength lies in its performances and its character interactions. Sader is brilliant, and though at times his script gets indulgent, he’s got the talent to pull it off. The sickness inside him is present before the drugs, which is critical to making his descent believable, and Sader fully commits to his nuanced performance. Laura Keys, who plays his girlfriend and kind of his sister, is also strong in a pivotal role.

If the film has a flaw, it’s the final few minutes, a surreal two minutes bogged down with obvious symbolism that threatens to derail the film’s considerable momentum. Still, it’s better than even the best Matthew McConahey impression.

alkratina@comicbookbin.com