Dear Pleasure Biopic about one of the most famous drug dealers Howard Marks was successful due to the courage of directorial decisions and a direct look at this material. Actively promoting a life of pleasure and drug use, the film doesn't even try to delve into the morals or the flip side of the coin. Not at all. In the picture, the accents on “good” suppliers and fans of blowing, and on “bad” lawyers and police officers are perfectly placed. Once again raising the theme of the injustice of legislation and the state system that destroys the personal happiness of people.
The first thing I want to turn to in this picture is its impeccable stylization for films of the seventies. During the whole viewing, there is never a thought that the film is modern and shot recently. It seems to have emerged from that dashing era, full of the use of signature techniques of cinema of that time and looks not only a biographical picture, but also an homage to the very time in which the action of the picture unfolded.
As for the content, the style of the film can not be touched. The black and white prologue clearly shows the dullness of everyday life and the hopelessness of the surrounding, shows intractable girls and bullying high school students, the routine of life and the infinity of problems ... and suddenly, one puff of marijuana fundamentally changes things - color appears around, naked beauties walk around, and friendly neighbors treat a variety of dried herbs that release consciousness and give pleasure!
The film does not even try to say no to drugs, it vociferously declares in the climactic sex scene what people should do when they are offered pot, and in itself is built solely on an approving attitude to the problem. If the picture was not biographical, but would tell about a certain hero invented for cinema, it would probably have much more chases and fights with the police and a much more life-affirming bright happy ending, but even with a mixture of facts and script embellishment it turned out very spectacular, although almost without action episodes.
Dramatically twisted deliveries are exposed to a bright topic, regardless of their luck. Something is found, something can be held, trials and suspicions one after another, a series of problems and a series of happy situations. Episodes of fun and madness (a video with a pig and a talking dick must cause a storm of all kinds of emotions) alternate with life’s difficulties, because in fact all this string of grass is an expensive pleasure and a dangerous business, but for Howard Marx it is already a way of life. And, perhaps, the only negative metaphor of the picture is clearly shown addiction, and not so much to smoking illegal plants as to the inability of the main character to engage in crime even for the sake of his beloved woman, his family, his children.
However, in seriousness and tragedy, the plot, thank God, does not drown, and does not teach us sad outcomes in the manner of some “Children from the Zoo Station” (" Christiane F. – Wir Kinder vom Bahnhof Zoo), “On a Needle” or “Morphia”, and at the same time, most importantly, without all this seriousness and sociality, the picture does not turn into an unbearable and stoned crazy comedy like “Harold and Kumara”, “Pineapple Express” or “Jay with silent Beau”. The film successfully retains direct quality humor and gracefully balances with the dramatic component, pressing on the wrong laws and the imperfection of the judicial system as a whole.
Ivans in the lead role was beautiful, he drags the whole film on himself, regularly presenting something spectacular, pretentious, confident and really impressive! And at the same time, of course, I want to note how delightfully David Thewlis (Lupin from Harry Potter) played a revolutionary who goes against the system. The rest only qualitatively complemented the plot without much spark, but also without claims. Except that the police and other law enforcement officers came out incredibly nasty and nasty personalities, and many pretty girls who took part in the film should be thanked for the abundance of nudity.
Bernard Rose’s film is truly impressive and should draw a sea of approval and a sea of negative criticism for propaganda and so on. It impresses and entertains, taking for two hours in the era of the seventies, to a cinematic paradise of freedom with indicators of the destroyers of happiness in the face of drugs. It turned out a picture of a cheerful and successful businessman, giving people what they need. And how abominable and nasty police force, together with equally wretched and disgusting laws, destroy families and personal happiness. After such a picture I want one thing - legalization!
8 out of 10
Original