Permanent Midnight 1998, Rated R Artisan Home Entertainment

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Starring Ben Stiller, Elizabeth Hurley, et al. Released to DVD on February 23, 1999.

For their part, actors poistively drool at the opportunities to work in movies like Permanent Midnight. Playing junkies or alcoholics, like playing the part of a mentally challenged individual (see Juliette Lewis' The Other Sister) is the stuff dreams and Oscars are made of. Apparently, the rationale is that anyone can act the part of a baker or a cop, but portraying a junkie, something that merely involves poking ones self with needles and sweating a lot, takes talent. And thusly, critics screen these films and pontificate about the superior nature of the acting, and how realistic and gritty everything on-screen seemed. I, however, come from a different school of thought, and feel that these new docu-dramas, while they may be well acted and directed, are a waster of time because they are, ultimately, boring as hell.

Ben Stiller stars in Permanent Midnight as Jerry Stahl, a young writer in 1980's Hollywood. At the peak of his career, Stahl is earning upwards of $5,000 a week writing for shows like Alf and Moonlighting. There is a downside to this as well, as Stahl has a heroin habit the size of Marlon Brando that dehabilitates him as a person and all but ended his burgeoning career as the $6,000 a week he spent on illegal substances affected his performance as a professional writer.

For the most part, the story in Permanent Midnight is told through the use of flashbacks, with Stiller explaining the sordidness of his junkiedom to Maria Bella's character. In a situation such as this, with there a lesson to be learned by Stiller's on-screen experiences, the use of flashbacks was an incredibuly cheap manoever by director David Veloz. Cheap, because without the flashbacks, Veloz would have had to rely on the actions of Stiller to send the message, and couldn't have fallen back onto Stiller's voice-overs detailing what a poor excuse for a human being he was while using heroin.

With its focus on the downward spiral of one individuals life, Permanent Midnight initially seemed as if it would be comparable to Paul Thomas Anderson's probing, '97 character study, Boogie Nights. However, beyond lead character using and abusing a variety of drugs, the parallels ceased to exists. While Anderson took great pains to differentiate the characters in Boogie Nights and made a concerted effort to have Mark Wahlberg do things besides sticking needles into his arm to convey that Wahlberg's character was a junkie. This was something that Veloz just didn't spend anytime doing. Permanent Midnight felt like a two hour exercise in watching Ben Stiller jamming hypodermics into his arms, legs, and neck.

Stiller and Elizabeth Hurley deliver credible and solid acting performances, but in the context of yet another story about a self-destructive junkie who recovers only to capitalize on his negative experiences, this didn't matter. Unless you're going to be entertained watching Stiller convulse on the floor, swat away imaginary bugs, and sweat profusely, Permanent Midnight isn't the movie for you. Or me.