Spiritual and geographical journey of a junkie nicknamed Fuckhead, in the early 1970s (more progress geographically, perhaps, than spiritually). The incidents, lifted from a semi-autobiographical collection of short stories by Denis Johnson, have something of the talkative drug addict's boring desire to astonish and proneness to embellish. But the one to do with the peeping Tom who walks into ER with a knife in his eye is genuinely, if gruesomely, funny. ("Patient complains of a knife in the head," someone deadpans. "Stabbing pain," someone tops him.) The New Zealand-based director, Alison Maclean, exhibits a fine feel for the ugliest features of the American landscape. And the American accent of English actress Samantha Morton is almost as remarkable as her shimmy-shake in hip-huggers and bare midriff. With Billy Crudup, Denis Leary, Dennis Hopper, Jack Black, and Holly Hunter. (2000) — Duncan Shepherd
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