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In Seventies America, Bob (Matt Dillon) and his wife Dianne (Kelly Lynch) travel from state to state, ripping off cies to fuel their drug addiction. Gaining a certain a of notoriety and respect for his streetwise bravado, Bob is forced to reassess his life when gang member Nadine (Heather Graham) dies of an overdose. He attempts to kick the habit and go legit but is hindered by his own lack of willpower and his wife's reluctance to give up life in the fast lane. Directed by Gus van Sant, it also features an appearance by author William Burroughs as a junkie priest. From .co.uk ----------- Drugstore Cowboy was the breakaway change of pace and success for a number of those involved in its making. Principally, Gus Van Sant became a director of immediate notability winning multiple international Festival awards and accl. It also allowed Matt Dillon to stretch his acting abilities well outside of the teen rebel pigeonhole he'd become associated with in the 1980s and provided far meatier roles for Kelly Lynch and Heather Graham. Adapted from James Fogle's novel ( /exec/obidos/ASIN/038530224X/%24%7B0%7D ), the broad strokes of the plot are simple enough; a junkie foursome led by Dillon's headstrong Bob, move around the Pacific Northwest in the early 70s scoring ceutical drugs in a series of robberies. The finer details, created with the sense of family developing between the principals, and how they are not portrayed as either victims or "bad" criminals. Van Sant occasionally slips into the surreal depicting Bob's drug-addled thinking like a James Bond title sequence, along with a questionable in-joke cameo with Williams S Burroughs, dish out advice and temptation to Bob. In one simple way, it's little more than a road movie. Yet on another level there's a cautionary tale of the life of a junkie that has relevance well beyond the film's timeframe. On the DVD: A stereo track and a grainy print in 1.85:1 usually does a movie little favours, but here they add to the overall gritty atmosphere surprisingly well. The only extra is unfortunately the original trailer. --Paul Tonks