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Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
Drugstore Cowboy
EMAILPRINTAvenue Pictures Productions
Universal acclaim
Based on 15 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 3 votes
Read user comments
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Movie Info
Genre(s): Crime | Drama
Written by:
Gus Van Sant & Daniel Yost
James Fogle (novel)
Directed by: Gus Van Sant
Release Date:
Theatrical: October 6, 1989
DVD: October 26, 1999
Running Time: 100 minutes, Color
Origin: USA
Summary
RATING: R
Starring Matt Dillon, Kelly Lynch, James LeGros, Heather Graham, and Max Perlich
A group of heroin addicts lead by Bob (Dillon) rob drugstores to continue their addictions.
Also On Metacritic
FILM: Drugstore Cowboy Elephant Even Cowgirls Get the Blues Finding Forrester Gerry Good Will Hunting Last Days My Own Private Idaho Paranoid Park Psycho To Die For
Also On The Web: Internet Movie Database
What The Critics Said
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
TV Guide Staff (Not Credited)
Gus Van Sant's direction here is supremely confident, fusing witty camerawork, neat editing, and a jazz-oriented score to make Drugstore Cowboy an exhilaratingly bumpy ride.
Read Full Review >Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert
Drugstore Cowboy is one of the best films in the long tradition of American outlaw road movies - a tradition that includes "Bonnie and Clyde," "Easy Rider," "Midnight Cowboy" and "Badlands."
Read Full Review >Los Angeles Times Sheila Benson
Drugstore Cowboy, an electrifying movie without one misstep or one conventional moment. [11 Oct 1989]
Variety Staff (Not Credited)
No previous drug-themed film has the honesty or originality of Gus Van Sant's drama Drugstore Cowboy.
Read Full Review >Washington Post Hal Hinson
Van Sant gives his material shape and an invigorating, syncopated style. It keeps coming at you in surprising, dazzling ways.
Read Full Review >Austin Chronicle Marjorie Baumgarten
Certainly one of the best drug movies ever made.... Great performances make this dispassionate study a memorable experience.
Read Full Review >Boston Globe Jay Carr
Drugstore Cowboy, Gus Van Sant's fresh, gutsy societal underbelly film, never wallows in picturesque down-and-outism, except at the end, when Dillon's character, frightened by the death of a girl he didn't like much and spooked by his own paranoiac suspicion, checks into a seedy hotel while trying to go cold turkey and not yield to the influence of a junkie priest drolly played by William Burroughs. [27 Oct 1989]
Chicago Tribune Dave Kehr
A study of junkie culture from the inside (not a fashionable point of view these days), Drugstore Cowboy is funny, depressive and strangely noble, often all at once. [27 Oct 1989]
Washington Post Desson Howe
Neither federally admonishing nor irresponsibly romantic, Cowboy stays high without being highhanded.
Read Full Review >Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum
Adapted by Van Sant and Daniel Yost from an unpublished autobiographical novel by James Fogle, this 1989 feature has the kind of stylistic conviction that immediately wins one over.
Read Full Review >The New York Times Stephen Holden
Drugstore Cowboy, Gus Van Sant Jr.'s glum, absorbing film about a clan of heroin addicts who travel around the Pacific Northwest Looting pharmacies of their supplies the way Bonnie and Clyde cleaned out banks, gives Matt Dillon the role of his career.
Read Full Review >Wall Street Journal Julie Salamon
Though the picture by no means endorses drugs, and paints the junkie life as almost intolerably dull as well as destructive, it is a welcome relief from the mostly heavy-handed Hollywood pictures that tackle the subject. [05 Oct 1989]
USA Today Mike Clark
A daring movie in today's current climate - one likely to be remembered at year's end. [18 Oct 1989]
Rolling Stone Peter Travers
Drugstore Cowboy improves. Not much, but in provocative ways.
Read Full Review >San Francisco Chronicle Peter Stack
In spite of its downbeat subjects, Drugstore Cowboy becomes a satisfying drama of redemption. [27 Oct 1989]
What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this movie is 9.0 (out of 10) based on 3 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
