The greatest movie ever!

I was totally surprised at how great this film.You could feel your paranoia rise as the film went on and as you gradually learned the details of the real situation.

One of the best movies of the year! Incredible from the beginning to the end.

The tone of this movie is interesting -- the stakes are both dramatic and high, but it's balanced with a lot of fun, tongue and cheek dialogue.

Based on a true story, "Permanent Midnight" stars Ben Stiller as a Jerry Stahl, a successful television writer whose life is wrecked by a severe drug addiction. Despite a good performance by Stiller, "Permanent Midnight" is a thin film. The life of a writer and the world of an addict are superficially skimmed over, and the factors which lead to Stahl's compulsions are all but ignored. History is filled with writers (Bukowski, Burroughs, Kerouac etc) suffering from addictions, but director David Veloz never cares to ask "why?". Too in love with style and surfaces, "Permanent Midnight" only dives into the head of its protagonist in its last act, when a now clean Stahl attempts to forge relationships with both a fellow detox survivor (Maria Bello) and his young daughter. Owen Wilson co-stars.7/10 – See instead "In A Lonely Place", "Half Nelson", "Henry Fool", "Auto Focus", "Mishima" and "Contempt".

This is such a well blended project, i seriously liked it. Ben Stiller was perfect for this role! Just the right type of personality, definitely not exactly a light hearted movie, just as Jerry Stahl's true life however, he wrote it so well those of us who understand his point can appreciate his story. I did, and i wouldn't change one word. Ben is seen in such a way here i believe he hasn't played anything similar since. I was surprised with certain scenes but happily! I am thankful to share insight into the personal life of this deep intelligent man who was behind the scenes in my youth per say. They even resemble each other so much. Mr. Veloz struck gold here, Elizabeth is a delight, i love her. It was fun to watch for me! I agree so underrated shame. I plan to read the books, and also the Beautiful lil girl playing Nina at the end was so adorable WOW! She reminded me of a cherub .. I couldn't locate her name, ethereal how she behaved , what a fantastic cast, she deserves recognition awe. Everyone involved did fabulous! It should be re-released ??? Needs awards !! BRAVO

Most of the drug-use scenes were fairly realistic. Been there and back myself, so to tell you the truth, nothing I saw in the movie made me wince, although there was a lot to relate to. There's a scene where - this really isn't a spoiler, given the context of the movie - where Jerry dumps some pills out of a prescription bottle, and they look exactly like the kind of pills they're supposed to be. Nice attention to detail. One thing that movies never quite get right or, perhaps like this one, simply choose to ignore, are the details of how one actually turns one's life around from being addicted to recovering, and this movie was no exception. We know in the beginning that Jerry has been through rehab, but that process itself, which may I say ain't exactly a cakewalk - and I mean you have to be clean before you can go through it, remains rather mysterious. Oh well, whatever, an interesting, entertaining movie that held my interest for its running time. Some usage scenes might be a bit upsetting to the non-anointed, although probably nothing quite so hard to take as in Requiem For A Dream.

I think Ben Stiller is one of the most talented comic actors currently working, even though he is often in awful movies (e.g. 'Zoolander', 'The Suburbans'). 'Permanent Midnight' is one of the best movies he has been involved with and features what is arguably his single finest performance. Based on the autobiography of TV hack writer Jerry Stahl, this is a smart, fresh and blackly humorous look at addiction and Hollywood. Stiller has a fine supporting cast here, especially his buddies and frequent co-stars Owen Wilson ('Bottle Rocket') and Janeane Garofolo ('Reality Bites'), the amazingly charismatic star-in-the-making Peter Greene ('Laws Of Gravity'), and comedy veteran Fred Willard ('Best In Show'), who all have small but memorable roles. Hell, even Liz Hurley and Cheryl Ladd are good in this, believe it or not. 'Permanent Midnight' was, like so many other good movies that don't pander to a mass audience, a box office flop, but will hopefully find a larger audience in years to come via video and DVD. I think it is one of the most underrated movies of the last ten years, and highly recommend it.