Permanent Midnight (1998)

Powerful

The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

Permanent Midnight is a good film all things considered. Though when watching Stiller as the Stahl character one may regret that this movie isn't incredible. Ben Stiller has proven himself to be one of the top comedic actors in the game (zoolander, meet the parents) but according to Permanent Midnight Stiller's weakness may be the people that he works with. David Veloz let a brilliant and emotional performance and auto-biography do way less than it should've. Throughout the film Stiller's performance gets more and more intense but the direction goes nowhere. The cinematography is flat and the editing is dull and inconsistent. It's a classic case of an actor being more involved in a film than his director. Would i recommend this movie? If you like Stiller you need to see it but just keep in mind that once the end credits roll and a song by none other than Everclear wraps up what's a nice little emotional ending it's time to press mute and put on ANY OTHER BAND. I'll tell ya there's nothing quite like the belting emotional vocal stylings of Art Alexakis to ruin a nice little film about heroin addiction. "Yeah-ah! No-oh! Everything is wonderful now!!!" .....kill me

Probably one of the best movies about drugs that I've ever seen. An excellent performance by Ben Stiller in one of his most serious roles. If you want to see a movie that portrays the life-style associated with drugs accurately, watch this movie.

I love this movie. I've probably seen it at least 10 times. The last time I saw it, I was at the Red Cross donating platelets. The process takes up to 2 hours, and they let you bring in a movie to watch while you lie motionless in the donor chair. Imagine watching this film with fat needles stuck in BOTH of your arms . . . Yes, this movie is choppy. Yes, this movie is uneven. But it all seems completely appropriate. None of that interfered with my total immersion into this gritty, stylish, and dark tale. Ben Stiller is absolutely fantastic. I found his performance very convincing. I think the best dramatic actors are those who came up through the avenues of comedy ("funny comes from a sad place"). Jim Carrey and Robin Williams are further proof of this -- no one can cry on cue like these guys.Add in other terrific performances by Owen Wilson, Janeane Garofalo, Fred Willard, Peter Greene, Sheryl Ladd, Andy Dick, Charlie Fleischer, and even Jerry Stahl. There were some really shocking scenes in this film, especially the crack smoking scene where they jumped against the plate glass windows. Great film.

SPOILERS - Even thought this is a pseudo-autobiography, in the movie it is presented as the story of Jerry (Ben Stiller) in recovery, meeting a girl (Maria Bello) in recovery, and the two of them trying to figure out if they can make a go of it, initially meeting at a cheap motel for casual sex, and by the end of the movie realizing they love each other. Their conversations result in a number of Jerry's memories which are shown in flashback form.Whether this is a good movie depends on what one expects to get out of it. "Permanent Midnight" tries to be entertaining in spots. To wit, Jerry picks up a German girl, they have meaningless sex, and at climax she yells, "My God, my God, I'm being f**ked by a Jew!" Very marginal humor. This is not a very entertaining film, but it is gripping simply for the realization that some people actually try to navigate their lives that way. During this period, the real Jerry Stahl was writing for popular 1980s series like "Moonlighting", "Alph", and "Northern Exposure." Anyway, during his addiction phase Stahl represents himself as a person with little self-control, lying, needing drugs to get through any stressful situation. Then, when he first tries to rehabilitate, bad friends drag him down. I am glad I saw this film, however I cannot recommend it strongly. However, I now realize that thirty-something Maria Bello might be my new favorite female actress, after seeing her here, in "Coyote Ugly" and in "Duets." She is uniquely attractive and a very natural actress, I think I could enjoy watching her in anything!