Slow pace in the most part of the movie.

Lack of good storyline.

Blending excellent reporting and strong storytelling, this is a disturbing film truly stranger than fiction

.Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

This is one of the worst films I've ever watched. I cannot believe they made a film on this topic for a start. They then managed to top that with one of the worst storyline and some of the strangest characters ever. This is a truly strange film from start to finish where none of the characters are remotely likable. Truly a mess and utterly dreadful from start to finish. I cannot believe how highly rated this film is, absolutely shockingly bad. Stay well away is my suggestion. Nothing good about this film. Would give it 0/10 if I could.

Just saw this on Netflix, and I thought it was extremely well done, but it just didn't seem like most of the things that happened in the film could have taken place in the Manhattan of today. Too much of it took place right in the open, and I don't see how that could go on in the Police/Tourist State Manhattan has become, as the result of 24 years of the dictatorships of Giuliani and Bloomberg.A film like Panic In Needle Park was done before the gentrification of Manhattan, so its Manhattan setting was quite believable, but the author of the 'book' this was based on, Ms. Holmes, said in an interview that most of the incidents this was based on were taken from her life in Bayonne, NJ. The brothers that made this flick met Ms. Holmes on the subway while she was doing some type of apprenticeship in the Diamond District.I suppose that Ms. Holmes decided to set, "Mad Love in NYC" in NYC, because who would care about a book called "Mad Love in Bayonne"?I had just seen "My Beautiful Broken Brain", and it seems to be a trend of having beautiful women who have gone through bad ordeals, starring in films about said ordeals. If both of these movies were about unattractive women, I doubt they would have had any marketability, hence probably wouldn't be made, but hey, it worked in my case; I wouldn't have watched either movie if their stars weren't so gorgeous!

There are a lot of movies about drugs addiction. Heaven Knows What (2014) adds a new chapter to them. It is a small film, which shows the daily life of a number of addicts in a realistic manner. In addition to the struggle for life, love plays an important role. Heaven Knows What manages to touch the very soul, is fascinating and intriguing. And also acted well (or not) by real addicts.Heaven Knows What is extra special because of the story behind it. It is the story of Arielle Holmes. On her 12th she already smoked crack, because it was quite normal in her environment. She soon lived on and from the street, day to day, bag to bag. Filmmaker Joshua Safdie, drifting through the city in search of inspiration, came in contact and was fascinated by her. He asked her to write down her story. Every day one page. On loose pieces of paper. Later, he handed her his laptop (which was delivered back neatly by police ....). This is the way a book is created, which forms the basis for this film.Besides the story of her addiction, she tells the story of her love for Ilya. Ilya is played by the only professional actor (Caleb Landry Jones), because the real Ilya died during the shooting. In the film he falls asleep after a shot and his room catches fire. In the movie Harley (Arielle Holmes) attempts to commit suicide as proof of her love for him. Their relationship is not running very well, which is caused by the drugs. You always have a different priority.So Arielle Holmes also plays the lead role and she appears to be a natural talent. At the time of filming and writing the book she was hooked. Now she is out of rehab and has two other films on the role. It looks like a variant of the American Dream. From addict to actress.Arielle Holmes declared in an interview that the life of an addict also has its good sides and that she has trouble with ordinary life. No responsibility, living in the moment, just focused on eating, drinking and drugs. Little hassle and a lot of freedom. I can somewhere imagine that. Yet in the end it seems to me particularly stressful to start each day from scratch. It becomes harder every day to find relaxation. You need more and bigger shots and it becomes increasingly difficult to get the money. A negative spiral, which is hard to breakthrough.I wonder how she will develop because she's only 22 and not very long clean. If she can keep seeing things from two sides, she will manage. Because besides its authenticity a strength of Heaven Knows What is that it glorifies nor condemns.

Truly didn't expect anything out of this, which is why it was such a huge surprise. I don't think its flawless, but effective it surely is. I feel like its style is definitely going to out off a lot of people (quite a lot actually). I mean, even from the get-go it basically affirms the type of film it'll be and how it'll be presented, with its loud, throbbing score (which is both beautiful as an individual piece, but also really disturbing in the context of the film). The performances here are compelling, all of the main actors totally and fully committed. Arielle Holmes is a true talent though, what a fantastic performance. Raw and real and totally honest, no artifice or anything. This film is fully recommended.