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List Price: $12.95 | | Label: Fox Lorber
Salesrank: 40258
Released: March 21, 2000 |
| Our Price: $33.90 |
| Used Price: $19.19 |
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MPAA Rating: R (Restricted)
Media: DVD |
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Editorial Review:
Who knew comedian Richard Lewis could act? There is no plot to speak of in this character study, which follows AA members who meet in a Times Square basement to bare their souls. The performances, however, are dazzling. A sparse plot follows Lewis through one dark, soul-searching night in which he questions his life, his choices, and his sobriety. The direction is minimal, but Faye Dunaway, Spalding Gray, Parker Posey, Amanda Plummer, Dianne Wiest, and Howard Rollins bring out the intense emotions and dark, bitter humor of Gary Lennon's play, Blackout. We could have used more time with all of them, however, as the only fully realized character is played by Lewis. --Rochelle O'Gorman
Drunks Reviews:
BRILLIANT! 
2008-08-16 - I LOVED THIS FILM! THE SCRIPT IS AMAZING AND SO ARE THE ACTORS. WATCHING IT IS A VERY EMOTIONAL EXPERIENCE. IT IS INTERESTING HOW ART CAN BE EFFECTIVE. A BRILLIANT PIECE OF WORK. BUY IT!
Wilson LSD 
2008-05-17 - Marital difficulties
Wilson was serially unfaithful to his wife Lois. Wilson 's affairs with women caused controversy and concern within AA and it was common knowledge in New York AA circles. His interest in younger women increased with his age, and caused Barry Leach and other friends of Wilson to form a "Founders Watch". People were assigned to keep an eye on Wilson during the socializing that followed AA functions and to separate and steer away those young women who caught Wilson's interest. Wilson, like many in his generation, could be sexist, but he was also "capable of treating the women who worked with him with dignity and respect". In the mid 1950s he began an affair with Helen Wyn, a woman 22 years his junior, "in duration, intensity and scope" this was different from his other affairs. Wilson at one point discussed divorcing Lois to marry Helen. Wilson with determined perseverance was able to overcome the AA trustees objections, and renegotiated his royalty agreements with them in 1963, which allowed him to include Helen Wynn in his estate. He left 10% of his book royalties to Helen and the other 90% to his wife Lois. In 1968 with Wilson's illness making it harder for them to spend time together, Helen bought a house in Ireland.
Alternative cures and spiritualism
In the 1950s Wilson experimented with LSD in medically supervised experiments with Gerard Heard and Aldous Huxley. With Wilson's invitation his wife Lois, Father Dowling, and Nell Wing also participated in experimentation of this drug. Later Wilson wrote to Carl Jung, praising the results and recommending it as validation of Jung's spiritual experience. (The letter was not in fact sent as Jung had died.)
At a parapsychology meeting in the 1960s, Wilson met Abram Hoffer and learned about the potential mood-stabilizing effects of niacin. Wilson was impressed with experiments indicating that alcoholics who were given niacin had a better sobriety rate, and he began to see niacin "as completing the third leg in the stool, the physical to complement the spiritual and emotional." Wilson also believed that niacin had given him relief from depression, and he promoted the vitamin within the AA community and with the National Institute of Mental Health as a treatment for schizophrenia. However, Wilson created a major furor in AA because he used the AA office and letterhead in his promotion.
For Wilson, spiritualism (communicating with the spirits of the dead) was a life-long interest. One of his letters to his spiritual adviser Father Ed Dowling suggests that while Wilson was working on his book Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions he felt that spirits were helping him, in particular a 15th century monk named Boniface.[18] Wilson believed that the living could communicate with the dead and kept a "Spook Room" in his basement, where he along and others would conduct seances with a Ouijiboard, as well as experiment with automatic writing. Despite his conviction that he had evidence for the reality of the spiritual world, Wilson chose not to share this with AA.
Bummer..........
2008-05-03 - I really wanted this film to be GREAT, and it was not. No drama to keep you entertained, it dragged and although this could have been a really wonderful film to use for groups and those entering recovery, I was disapointed.
The acting left a lot to be desired too.
A 5-star script but Richard Lewis was a poor choice; a solid "B" nevertheless 
2007-02-11 - This is a well-conceived story that works mainly due to good writing, and not necessarily acting. I liked the idea of the story taking place (essentially) over a couple of hours as we learn about these different characters. The opening and closing music is particularly noteworthy in its creating and reinforcing the tone of the movie. Unfortunately, my hesitation concerning Richard Lewis in a dramatic lead role (especially one that is as serious as alcoholism) was warranted after reading the production notes on the DVD - the creators of the movie even had doubts themselves that he was the right actor for the role and it's a shame he managed to convince them he could do it: he's not horrible but I feel that so many other actors could have done a far better job and imbued this story with the power it had in the script.
Too melodramatic and unrealistic to be taken seriously 
2007-01-17 - Drunks is basically the story of Jim, an alcoholic who after being forced into giving a speech at AA on a "bad day", runs amok through his old neighborhood drinking and bringing up his traumatic past. Interspersed between Jim's episodes are all the confessions of the AA group he walked out on.
What this seemingly unending monologue turns out to be is a clutch of unrealistic and melodramatic confessions from various members of the group. While they try to explain that there are all different levels of recovery involved in the meeting, everyone "spills" like a newcomer.
The movie lacks both drama and some much needed comedic relief. The script is too scripted and sculptured, and winds out sounding like a recital rather than a spontaneous story of alcoholism, recovery, or falling off the wagon.
The cast is stellar, with Faye Dunaway, Calista Flockhart, Amanda Plummer, Dianne Wiest, Spalding Gray, Richard Lewis, Anna Levine, and many others. The performances are fine, it's the script and presentation that's weak. I don't recommend this movie if you're a fan of addiction stories, it just can't quite reach the soul.
