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How entertaining? ★★★★☆
Thought provoking? ★★☆☆☆ 4 September 2011
This a movie review of THE PANIC IN NEEDLE PARK. |
“The intersection at Broadway and 72nd Street on New York’s West Side is officially known as Sherman Square. To heroin addicts it’s Needle Park.”
This is the Al Pacino of the 70s, a first test as a leading man; pre-Godfathers, Serpico and Dog Day Afternoon. It’s probably one of the legend's least likeable characters. His Bobby and the whole picture have the feel of Dustin Hoffman and Midnight Cowboy. While The Panic in Needle Park post-dates that, it pre-dates Requiem for a Dream and Candy – where it shares thematic similarities of addiction and human degradation. Panic is sombre and heartbreaking but lively in a John Cassavetes kinda way - cinema verité, claustrophobia, bursts of anger, discomfort.
This is the Al Pacino of the 70s, a first test as a leading man; pre-Godfathers, Serpico and Dog Day Afternoon. It’s probably one of the legend's least likeable characters. His Bobby and the whole picture have the feel of Dustin Hoffman and Midnight Cowboy. While The Panic in Needle Park post-dates that, it pre-dates Requiem for a Dream and Candy – where it shares thematic similarities of addiction and human degradation. Panic is sombre and heartbreaking but lively in a John Cassavetes kinda way - cinema verité, claustrophobia, bursts of anger, discomfort.
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“Panic.”
“Worse than ‘68.”
“Worse than ‘64.”
“It’s an election year, that’s why there’s no sh*t.”
“No problems but smack and coke.”
There is a lack of drugs on the street. This has pushed up prices and desperation. You get to see on two occasions people shooting up in close-up. The blood going back into the needle. Don’t be having your dinner while watching. Like Candy’s Heath Ledger and Abbie Cornish, Al Pacino and Kitty Winn (Helen) are a couple, well, we observe them quickly become one. She is dumped by an artist (Raul Julia – who is barely in it but his charisma is very present), and ends up with Bobby. This is a story of a how a sweet middle-class girl-next-door falls for an addict and descends into the same spiral as him. They are barely given any back story, and we are forced then to concentrate on their words and gestures to try to understand their motivations; made a little easier by their impressive performances. The drama unfolding is not lopsided in favour of Pacino, Winn more than holds her own.
Panic doesn’t take you to the explicit hell of Requiem, but it is a hard watch none-the-less – Bobby OD’ing while a baby screams, or witnessing tenderness and camaraderie ebb away. The last scene was great. This is Romeo and Juliet on junk, 70s-style.
