Blow (2001)

 

Genre: Crime

Time: 2 hours

Director: Ted Demme

Quick Summary: The story of how George Jung, along with the Medellín Cartel headed by Pablo Escobar, established the American cocaine market in the 1970s in the United States.

I'm not going to lie, I got jumpscared by the picture at the end.

As a fan of Goodfellas, I am honestly pretty pleased by this, probably due to how similar they are in terms of editing. The narration was mostly what I liked as I'm usually a sucker for those types of films. Voice-over narration is used to express George's feelings and thoughts throughout various events of his life, talking us through what's going on and what he plans to do, usually with some form of hectic montage. I've always enjoyed films like this because they keep it interesting and you feel some sort of personal bond towards the narrator the more you learn about their feelings and life. It's easier to connect to them. 

That said, this doesn't do it the best way. We miss out on a lot of depth from other characters, and we don't really learn anything outside of what George knows. Which I guess does put us in his shoes, but for something like this you need some peaks into the other side of things to really ramp up the enjoyment and tension. There were a lot of moments I'd find myself wishing I knew what was going on behind the scenes with certain characters because at face value they changed completely for no reason. 

Johnny Depp did a pretty good job from my view with the character though, his usual acting quirks did slip through. So, someone who is supposed to be calculating and cool, Johnny brought this strange sort of silliness to him that I felt was not needed at all. I also don't know who was in charge of his hair but those were bold choices. 

Once it gets past the meat of the story too; how he came to be one of the biggest drug dealers and gained all his money, it loses steam. The hectic and chaotic editing is gone and everything really slows down. This wasn't written to be slow, it needs energy otherwise the attention will go, like mine did. Two hours is definitely way too long to tell this story. Don't get me wrong the initial part of it which is told over the first hour and a bit is so interesting, learning how they started smuggling drugs over the border and how lax the airline security used to be too, as well as the initial boom of drug use happened. 

The montages helped a lot during the slower moments, as they filled in the parts that would take up a lot of time to tell in an already long story. Once he started using cocaine they were used a lot more which I'm so glad about, as it really shows what George was probably feeling while hocked up on three times the legal limit of cocaine. 

Though it does have its duller parts, this is such an interesting story that I would never really think about how it came be to. Solid acting, and fun editing, and probably will be a hit for those who love Goodfellas or Martin Scorsese. 

8/10

"Sometimes you're flush and sometimes you're bust, and when you're up, it's never as good as it seems, and when you're down, you never think you'll be up again, but life goes on."

"Derek: Jesus Christ, George, I don't see you for two years and you show up on my doorstep with 110 pounds of blow.

George: Just fucking sell it, Derek.

Derek: Okay, but it's going to take me a year.

[scene shift to interior Derek's bar surrounded by stacks of cash]

Derek: 36 hours, 36 hours, I can't believe we got rid of it in 36 hours."