Drugstore Cowboy

Set in Portland, Oregon, in 1971, the film follows Bob Hughes, a charismatic drug addict who leads a small circle of users made up of his wife, Dianne, and another couple, Rick and Nadine. The group supports its habit by robbing pharmacies and hospital supplies, treating the thefts and their run-ins with the police as a kind of game governed by superstitions. Bob sees drugs as an escape from an ordinary life he finds unbearable, and unlike his companions he senses what that escape will eventually cost. When the consequences turn severe, he tries to break away and rebuild his life.

Gus Van Sant directed and co-wrote the screenplay with Daniel Yost, working from a story by James Fogle. It was the first of eighteen features Van Sant has directed, ahead of My Own Private Idaho in 1991. Matt Dillon plays Bob, with Kelly Lynch as Dianne, James Le Gros as Rick, Heather Graham as Nadine, James Remar as Gentry and Beah Richards as a drug counselor. Avenue Pictures produced the film on a budget of three million dollars, and it took about five million dollars worldwide.

On IMDb it holds a critics' rating of 8 out of 10 from thirty reviews, while on TMDB its audience rating is 7.1 out of 10 from roughly 640 votes, a gap that suggests stronger approval among reviewers than among general viewers.