Love is the Drug (2006 film)
Encyclopedia
Love is the Drug is a 2006 American drama
produced by Box Office Productions and Alpine Pictures. Directed by Elliott Lester, it was filmed in Los Angeles, California
. It was previewed at the Slamdance Film Festival
in January 2006 before being released theatrically on a limited basis in Seattle, Washington
on October 6, 2006. Starring John Patrick Amedori
, Lizzy Caplan
, and D.J. Cotrona
, the film tells the story of a social outcast who becomes obsessed with a pretty wealthy girl and begins stealing drugs for her friends to be near her. It received mixed reviews from critics.
) is a scholarship student at a private school
full of wealthy students. Poor and lacking the social confidence of his classmates, at graduation he finds himself attracted to Sara Weller (Lizzy Caplan
), who is part of a group of sex and drug users that include her sometime boyfriend Troy (Jonathon Trent) and their friends Lucas (D.J. Cotrona
) and Erin (Jenny Wade
). Sara returns his interest but the rest of her group discourage Jonah's attention. However, after the group learn that he works part-time at a pharmacy
doing delivery, they bring them into his world for the summer, in exchange for his stealing prescription drugs for them. Jonah's mother, Sandra (Daryl Hannah
), is too busy working multiple jobs to try to keep up appearances, to try to deal with her son's sudden change in behavior. As the group gets more experimental with their drugs of choice, Jonah unravels as he becomes more and more obsessed with Sara. After Troy dies under questionable circumstances, his parents hire private investigator
Phill Hackwith (Bruce A. Young
) to try to find out the truth
. It was given a limited theatrical release in Seattle, Washington
on October 6, 2006. It was released to Region 4 DVD
in Australia
.
, based on reviews from five critics. Variety
s Justin Chang called the film "darkly compelling" and a "smartly acted and strikingly confident feature", he praised the cinematography and screenplay. He also praised Caplan's performance as Sara and felt Cotrona was "explosively charismatic", but he criticized the film's ending as "repetitive and overwrought" and found that the final moments "played
like a cheap stunt". While Seattle Times reviewer Ted Fry praised the film as a "small, earnest and generally well-acted movie [that] infuses a horrifying sense of realism in the sexual and drug-fueled behavior of kids who believe they are mature beyond their years", he also criticized the characters as being hard to identify or sympathize with and found Johah's eventual actions to be "unpleasantly erratic". Soren Andersen of The News Tribune panned the film, feeling the characters were sympathetic. In particular, he felt Sara was "vapid" and Lucas a "Robert Downey Jr.
doppelganger
" and "heartlessly manipulative substance abuser". The Seattle Post-Intelligencer
s Bill White gave the film a grade of "D" and stated that Lestor "aim[ed] for an edgy teen melodrama and finishe[d] with something less than a spineless horror flick". In particular, he felt the ending was "as predictable as it is improbable" and stated that it seemed like "an alternate ending to 'Beyond the Valley of the Dolls
,' shot by the gaffers during a meal break."
Drama
Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance. The term comes from a Greek word meaning "action" , which is derived from "to do","to act" . The enactment of drama in theatre, performed by actors on a stage before an audience, presupposes collaborative modes of production and a...
produced by Box Office Productions and Alpine Pictures. Directed by Elliott Lester, it was filmed in Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...
. It was previewed at the Slamdance Film Festival
Slamdance Film Festival
As a year-round organization, Slamdance serves as a showcase for the discovery of new and emerging talent in the film industry; it is also the only major film festival fully programmed by filmmakers. Slamdance counts among its alumni many notable writers and directors who first gained notice at the...
in January 2006 before being released theatrically on a limited basis in Seattle, Washington
Seattle, Washington
Seattle is the county seat of King County, Washington. With 608,660 residents as of the 2010 Census, Seattle is the largest city in the Northwestern United States. The Seattle metropolitan area of about 3.4 million inhabitants is the 15th largest metropolitan area in the country...
on October 6, 2006. Starring John Patrick Amedori
John Patrick Amedori
John Patrick Amedori is an American actor and musician.His most notable role has been as the 13 year old Evan Treborn in The Butterfly Effect. He has also appeared in a number of TV shows, including Law & Order, Nip/Tuck, Joan of Arcadia and Ghost Whisperer. He also appeared in the movie Stick It...
, Lizzy Caplan
Lizzy Caplan
Elizabeth Anne "Lizzy" Caplan is an American actress. In film, she is best known for her roles as Janis Ian in Mean Girls, Marlena Diamond in Cloverfield, and April in Hot Tub Time Machine...
, and D.J. Cotrona
D.J. Cotrona
Donald Joseph "D.J." Cotrona is an American actor.-Early life:Cotrona was born in New Haven, Connecticut. His father works for a recycling company and his mother is a teacher. He was studying to be a lawyer at Northeastern University in Boston; however, after doing a summer internship at a law...
, the film tells the story of a social outcast who becomes obsessed with a pretty wealthy girl and begins stealing drugs for her friends to be near her. It received mixed reviews from critics.
Plot
Jonah Brand (John Patrick AmedoriJohn Patrick Amedori
John Patrick Amedori is an American actor and musician.His most notable role has been as the 13 year old Evan Treborn in The Butterfly Effect. He has also appeared in a number of TV shows, including Law & Order, Nip/Tuck, Joan of Arcadia and Ghost Whisperer. He also appeared in the movie Stick It...
) is a scholarship student at a private school
Private school
Private schools, also known as independent schools or nonstate schools, are not administered by local, state or national governments; thus, they retain the right to select their students and are funded in whole or in part by charging their students' tuition, rather than relying on mandatory...
full of wealthy students. Poor and lacking the social confidence of his classmates, at graduation he finds himself attracted to Sara Weller (Lizzy Caplan
Lizzy Caplan
Elizabeth Anne "Lizzy" Caplan is an American actress. In film, she is best known for her roles as Janis Ian in Mean Girls, Marlena Diamond in Cloverfield, and April in Hot Tub Time Machine...
), who is part of a group of sex and drug users that include her sometime boyfriend Troy (Jonathon Trent) and their friends Lucas (D.J. Cotrona
D.J. Cotrona
Donald Joseph "D.J." Cotrona is an American actor.-Early life:Cotrona was born in New Haven, Connecticut. His father works for a recycling company and his mother is a teacher. He was studying to be a lawyer at Northeastern University in Boston; however, after doing a summer internship at a law...
) and Erin (Jenny Wade
Jenny Wade
Mary Virginia "Ginnie" Wade , a seamstress, was the only Gettysburg civilian killed directly during the Battle of Gettysburg....
). Sara returns his interest but the rest of her group discourage Jonah's attention. However, after the group learn that he works part-time at a pharmacy
Pharmacy
Pharmacy is the health profession that links the health sciences with the chemical sciences and it is charged with ensuring the safe and effective use of pharmaceutical drugs...
doing delivery, they bring them into his world for the summer, in exchange for his stealing prescription drugs for them. Jonah's mother, Sandra (Daryl Hannah
Daryl Hannah
Daryl Christine Hannah is an American film actress. After making her screen debut in 1978, Hannah starred in a number of Hollywood films throughout the 1980s, notably Blade Runner, Splash, Wall Street and Roxanne and Kill Bill.-Early life:Hannah was born in Chicago, Illinois, the daughter of Susan...
), is too busy working multiple jobs to try to keep up appearances, to try to deal with her son's sudden change in behavior. As the group gets more experimental with their drugs of choice, Jonah unravels as he becomes more and more obsessed with Sara. After Troy dies under questionable circumstances, his parents hire private investigator
Private investigator
A private investigator , private detective or inquiry agent, is a person who can be hired by individuals or groups to undertake investigatory law services. Private detectives/investigators often work for attorneys in civil cases. Many work for insurance companies to investigate suspicious claims...
Phill Hackwith (Bruce A. Young
Bruce A. Young
Bruce A. Young is an American television, film, and stage actor who is perhaps best known for his role as Capt. Simon Banks in the UPN science fiction police drama The Sentinel. Young had roles in the films Risky Business, Jurassic Park III, The Color of Money, Basic Instinct, Into Temptation,...
) to try to find out the truth
Release
Love is the Drug debuted as an entry in the January 2006 Slamdance Film FestivalSlamdance Film Festival
As a year-round organization, Slamdance serves as a showcase for the discovery of new and emerging talent in the film industry; it is also the only major film festival fully programmed by filmmakers. Slamdance counts among its alumni many notable writers and directors who first gained notice at the...
. It was given a limited theatrical release in Seattle, Washington
Seattle, Washington
Seattle is the county seat of King County, Washington. With 608,660 residents as of the 2010 Census, Seattle is the largest city in the Northwestern United States. The Seattle metropolitan area of about 3.4 million inhabitants is the 15th largest metropolitan area in the country...
on October 6, 2006. It was released to Region 4 DVD
DVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
in Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
.
Reception
Love is the Drug holds a rating of 60% and an average rating of 5.2 out of 10 on the film aggregate site Rotten TomatoesRotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...
, based on reviews from five critics. Variety
Variety (magazine)
Variety is an American weekly entertainment-trade magazine founded in New York City, New York, in 1905 by Sime Silverman. With the rise of the importance of the motion-picture industry, Daily Variety, a daily edition based in Los Angeles, California, was founded by Silverman in 1933. In 1998, the...
s Justin Chang called the film "darkly compelling" and a "smartly acted and strikingly confident feature", he praised the cinematography and screenplay. He also praised Caplan's performance as Sara and felt Cotrona was "explosively charismatic", but he criticized the film's ending as "repetitive and overwrought" and found that the final moments "played
Played
Played is a 2006 crime film produced by Caspar von Winterfeldt, Nick Simunek and Mick Rossi, executive produced by John Daly, co-produced by Nigel Mead and Lenny Bitondo, written by Sean Stanek and Mick Rossi and directed by Sean Stanek...
like a cheap stunt". While Seattle Times reviewer Ted Fry praised the film as a "small, earnest and generally well-acted movie [that] infuses a horrifying sense of realism in the sexual and drug-fueled behavior of kids who believe they are mature beyond their years", he also criticized the characters as being hard to identify or sympathize with and found Johah's eventual actions to be "unpleasantly erratic". Soren Andersen of The News Tribune panned the film, feeling the characters were sympathetic. In particular, he felt Sara was "vapid" and Lucas a "Robert Downey Jr.
Robert Downey Jr.
Robert John Downey, Jr. is an American actor. Downey made his screen debut in 1970 at the age of five when he appeared in his father's film Pound, and has worked consistently in film and television ever since. During the 1980s he had roles in a series of coming of age films associated with the...
doppelganger
Doppelgänger
In fiction and folklore, a doppelgänger is a paranormal double of a living person, typically representing evil or misfortune...
" and "heartlessly manipulative substance abuser". The Seattle Post-Intelligencer
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
The Seattle Post-Intelligencer is an online newspaper and former print newspaper covering Seattle, Washington, United States, and the surrounding metropolitan area...
s Bill White gave the film a grade of "D" and stated that Lestor "aim[ed] for an edgy teen melodrama and finishe[d] with something less than a spineless horror flick". In particular, he felt the ending was "as predictable as it is improbable" and stated that it seemed like "an alternate ending to 'Beyond the Valley of the Dolls
Beyond the Valley of the Dolls
Beyond the Valley of the Dolls is a 1970 American schlock melodrama film starring Dolly Read, Cynthia Myers, Marcia McBroom, John LaZar, Michael Blodgett and David Gurian...
,' shot by the gaffers during a meal break."