PERMANENT MIDNIGHT (1998) A Film Review by Ted Prigge Copyright 1998 Ted Prigge
Director: David Veloz Writer: David Veloz (based on the autobiography by Jerry Stahl) Starring: Ben Stiller, Maria Bello, Elizabeth Hurley, Owen Wilson, Fred Willard, Peter Greene, Janeane Garafolo, Cheryl Ladd, Connie Nielsen, Andy Dick, Jerry Stahl
Being inside someone's mind for about an hour and a half can really fuck you up, especially if you're in the mind of Jerry Stahl. Stahl was the writer of such TV shows as "Moonlighting," and "Thirtysomething," and most brilliantly"Alf," but more significantly, he was a drug addict making five grand a week then blowing six grand on drugs. His bestselling autobiography, if anything like the book, has got to be one of the most depressing, alienating book of the 90s, and that's counting Rush Limbaugh's "See, I Told You So."
Watching "Permanent Midnight" is like watching a giant shapeless blurb on the screen, framed by a section that tries to make sense of it but just joins in the shapelessness. We see Stahl's life from the beginning of his career to his rapid descent into obscurity then back up again, and half the time we have no idea where we are. This would be a major complaint if this film weren't about a drug dealer who's life was just like this. His drug taking was not so much out of pleasure as it was out of just trying to get the pain of addiction to stop.
Stahl, as played by Ben Stiller, is a selfish, shameless man who just happens to have a knack for being witty at the right time, but with an acid edge that makes him funny and a bit of an asswhole at the same time. Why he started drug taking, we never find out. When we first meet him, he's already hooked onto drugs and takes it just because he physically needs it. The first image in the film is of him injecting heroin into his veins in a public restroom, and we see nothing but pain in his eyes. He's not enjoying this ride. Neither was I.
The framing device of the story is his flashbacks to his life as he tells an ex-heroin addict named Kitty (Maria Bello, from "ER") in a smarmy motel room, far from the pleasures of L.A. As they have sex, and just lay around talking, he talks of his move out to L.A. where his friend hooks him up with a neat gig: for a quick payment of 20,000 bucks, he can marry a British television producer named Sandra (Elizabeth Hurley) so she can get a green card, and she will give him a writing job on a sitcom called "Mr. Chompers" (er, "Alf").
He does it, and this allows him to feed his addiction more and more until everything becomes a big blur. He shows up late to meetings, arrives high, and manages to write a script in about a half hour (this explains a lot about the quality of those shows, eh?). He injects his own life into his scripts (his mother commits suicide, and he uses it in his show as a joke), then ignores them as he does more drugs and has sex with various people. He befriends a dangerous dealer (Peter Greene), who is out in the parking lot outside of the drug clinic where Stahl gets help at.
All of this, including the framing device, comes at you in a blunt, straightforward manner, something which is totally respectful - hey, not every film has to be neatly organized and sweetly delivered in a nice little package - but after awhile, this becomes tedious. Stiller's performance is two-edged: he has no problem with showing the true grittiness of Stahl's persona and lifestyle, but at the same time, he comes off as a stupid asswhole who has no boundaries and no problem with wasting other people's time (notably that of a potential agent, played with hilarious control by Stiller-friend Janeane Garafolo). It's hard to really like a guy like this, and it's even harder to sit for an hour and a half and really care what happens to him.
Overall, I respected this film because it doesn't bullshit anyone about drugs. This isn't "Trainspotting," which glorified then trashed drug-use. But that film at least gave a reason for people to do it in the first place. This one forgets about all that, and just assumes that because the man is played by Ben "Mr. 1998" Stiller that it'll be easy to really give a shit happens to him. Wrong. I really like Stiller, especially this year (if you don't think he's a good director, at least after "Your Friends and Neighbors" you can say he's a brilliant actor), but there needs to be something else going on that gives me a reason to plow ahead with a film so murky and overtly depressing.
"Permanent Midnight" is one of those films that will be admired for its grit, but will never become enjoyable, even with some really nice moments that either horrify or humor. There's a really nasty scene where Stahl tries to inject a syringe into the vein in his neck, and there's also a really hilarious scene where he tries to come up with some ideas for a new TV show he's working on, all while being totally high. These moments, and the greatness of the acting by pretty much everyone involved, make this worth watching and plowing through. But I really doubt I'll ever try to plow through it again.
MY RATING (out of 4): ***
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