Another Day in Paradise (1998)

I've been meaning to see more Larry Clark movies for a while, so I finally knocked this one off the list. In this one, James Woods takes a delinquent junkie under his wing, teaching him how to rob places and be a better bad guy.

It starts off in the urban city muck with petty crimes, like stealing change from the vending machines. Very quickly, this movie shows you it isn't fucking around when our scrawny protagonist gets the shit beat out of him by a disgruntled security guard. Shit got fucked, and quick.

We've got all the makings for a great movie here: drug addiction, lowlives, violence, and desperate decisions. James Woods plays a cool and collected con-man who eventually loses his cool and spazzes out. He's playing himself, basically. The main dude Bobby is tough-talking yet determined delinquent, and he's often overconfident in his abilities.

This movie is one of many ways to tell the same old story, but it's done well, and it's not afraid to get its hands dirty. It's like Trainspotting and SLC Punk, but unlike those, this one has Lou Diamond Phillips as flaming gay psycho.

Solid movie. Might watch another Larry Clark movie soon. This guy knows what I look for in a movie.