People are voting emotionally.

I don't have all the words right now but this film is a work of art.

I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

Excellent, honest, does not pull any punches in it's grim reality of addiction and the struggles to get clean.The writing by Mr. Lennon is so truthful that it does not seem like a movie we are watching, but peeking into people's lives.The acting and direction were inspired and very realistic. If you want to see an honest movie about addiction and the ravages it causes...this is it. Be ready because it is not some Hollywood sugar coated piece of fluff thatt we are sujected to. Looking forward to seeing more of Mr. Lennon's writing transfered to film...a truly honest and unique voice. Incredible performances by all of the cast. Tight direction as well. Stands up to films in this genre..."Panic in Neddle Park", "Hatful of Rain"...etc...Don't miss it.

Richard Lewis is one of my all-time favorite comedians. Mel Brooks once called him the Franz Kafka of comedy, and it's not far from the truth. The guy crafts such agonizing and harrowing comedy out of neuroses and problems and just common familial and relationship and whatever dread that it's staggering to watch (seeing him recently it was even more free-form and stream-of-conscious than ever, like Kurt Vonnegut and Woody Allen in a Bowery bar telling penis jokes). But he also was, in his past, troubled and on drugs and alcohol and went to a therapist for years and so on, and finally kicked it for good in the early 90s (he even wrote a sprawling, scatter-shot tell-all book called The Other Great Depression). So, in 1995, he took the lead part in Drunks, and if it may seem like his performance as Jim is so spot on and incredible it's more than likely because he knows this character, maybe all too well.I go on about Lewis so much just because he's the character most on the edge, the one falling off amongst all these other AA people meeting in a Manhattan Church, that it's impossible to take your eyes off him when he shows up. Jim, who speaks very reluctantly to the couple of dozen people at the AA meeting, lost his wife to a brain aneurysm two years after becoming sober from booze and junk. Then he slipped and went back and at the time of the meeting he hasn't had a drink in several months. Right after this long and heartfelt confession he leaves and wanders the streets, tempted at first and finally giving in to his insatiable craving to whiskey and beer. While he goes from either bar to his apartment or on the streets for drugs the film cuts back to the AA meeting where other people share their experiences, some fatally tragic like the blackout guy, or Dianne Wiest's doctor, or Faye Dunaway's upper-class mother, or Sam Rockwell's seemingly regular guy, or even Parker Posey as an ex-hippie chick.Hell, even Calista Flockheart gives a showstopper of a performance, which is an indicator of how on top of things the actors are here. It is, if as a real liability, written and performed like a play, and it's broken up as a series of monologues inter-cut with Jim in his downward spiral mode. The good thing about director Peter Cohn's approach is that even if a monologue falls kind of flat- I actually didn't care much for Spalding Gray who sort of mumbled through his character's turn as the guy who just showed up not knowing it was an AA meeting in the basement of the church- it can cut back to Richard Lewis who, in particular in one later scene at a bar, lays it down to such a heartbreaking beat that you almost wish he was in a Bergman movie or something - or, for that matter, one of Woody Allen's serious films. He's that amazing here, whether it's just how he is or if it's a "performance" or whatever. It's an actor's movie, and for that it works well. Just don't watch it for anything fancy or flashy; it's slightly obscure for that reason, since it doesn't have a real "star" attached.

Since Richard Lewis is known primarily as a comic, it was surprising how well he handled the intense drama in this movie. I think he must have been drawing from personal experience, at least a little, because it all seems very real when he's on the screen. Review speaks openly about plot points that you are better off not knowing...Movie opens at an AA meeting, at which Lewis reluctantly shares his feelings. Soon after he bolts from the meeting and is on the trail of a bottle, even though he's been on the wagon for two years. The meeting goes on without him, and you get many monologues. They range from excellent (Lisa Gay Hamilton, Howard Rollins, Spalding Gray, Amanda Plummer) to acceptable (Faye Dunaway, Dianne Wiest) to annoying (Parker Posey, Calista Flockhart). Sam Rockwell is very good but does not have that much to do. The sharing of emotions seems a little improvised by some of them. As the meeting continues, you see Lewis go off the wagon and become a very angry drunk. He goes to a bar he used to frequent and insults the new owner (Christopher Lawford) by attempting to shoot some heroin at a table! Not even in the mens room! But it makes sense because by now Lewis is raw, and I bet liquor hits you like a ton of bricks after being off it for so long. It comes together at the end, as you see Lewis at a different AA meeting, about to start all over again. 7/10. Engrossing while you are watching it and interesting, but not too much for the memory bank.

An inside peek at the goings-on of an unusually attractive Alcoholics Anonymous meeting. Richard Lewis's character exists to provide a moral center for the film as it examines his desperate efforts to stay sober. The various members of the AA group provide different glimpses at what contributes to alcoholism and demonstrate that there is no one profile for what constitutes a "drunk."There are very nice performances in this film, particularly those of a pre-Ally McBeal Calista Flockhart and Parker Posey. The film's scene stealer and the most memorable drunk of all, however, is monologuist Spalding Grey, doing a hilarious turn as a church choir member who shows up at the wrong church. In the midst of explaining his blunder to the group he rhapsodizes brilliantly on the importance of Guinness in his life and discovers quietly that gee, maybe he too has a drinking problem.Overall the individual performances divert attention from the main storyline and provide more of a center for the film than Lewis, whose story is ultimately uninteresting. But check it out for Spalding Grey, who is probably the most natural actor in the film and a true pleasure to watch.