i know i wasted 90 mins of my life.

Excellent but underrated film

In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

Thumper threw some serious curves with actors in their mid- to late 30s, which looked their age, still attending high school, or was it prep school? It was a disjointed flick for several reasons, one noted, and another flaw is that the undercover gal, with the pink strands, gave a very sub par performance for a highly trained undercover law enforcement officer, such as digging through a dealer's trash during the day (while he is home), to injecting smack but continually refusing to hit on every joint offered to her. Another bad miss was the so-called "cook," a military veteran, who, while trying to get his VA script filled at some store (VA meds are mailed directly to your home), was told several times that his insurance was no good (there is no insurance for VA meds). While one can not understand why a disabled vet is at a drug store trying to get his VA meds in the first place, it gets worse. During this horrible scene, he obviously stepped right in front of some gal who had been in line, for who knows how long, waiting to talk with the same pharmacist, but she smiles at him as he brushes her aside and presses his clumsy dialogue with the pharmacist for his meds, and as he exits, he and the patience of Job gal, make eye contact, and she continues to smile as though standing in line was so very pleasant. During his awkward tirade with the pharmacist, moreover, he stated a few times that his medical condition was because of the war, stating it was service related, meaning service-connected, which further affirms that he would not have paid a dime, because there is no such animal as having or needing insurance for the medication. VA vets, which he and others affirmed he was in other scenes, don't have "insurance" for their service-connected meds or even their visits, and they don't go to CVS or Walgreens to get it. The narcs exaggerated and poorly portrayed love and sympathy for many of those involved with drugs, was also flat and out of character for any undercover officer. (Undercover or plain clothes officers, feds to lowest levels of government, are the 'best' and are those with many years of experience and being on the beat in uniform.) These are just a few examples of a poorly researched, scripted and produced film. If you want a good one in the genre, see "Drug Store Cowboy," which was not only based on fact but was executed with that strong sense of realism indeed - and it was only released after the real players approved of the production.

Caught this on Netflix, I thought it started well and drew you into a story about teens, using and buying and selling drugs. Pablo Schreiber jumps off the screen, he does an excellent job and was perfectly cast, showing the corrupted raw instincts of a military veteran gone bad. The story is ultimately one that has been told many times but is a good tense gritty crime drama. Without giving away spoilers I can't go into the plot but think of a combination of 8 Mile and Breaking Bad. Every character was desperate in their own way in a tightly woven story.I hate to say it but I think the weak spot was Eliza Taylor who is not up to the challenge of carrying the film and was a bit too soft for the part. I was surprised to see Lena Headey and it took me a minute to recognize her, she did a wonderful job as Eliza's boss. The best part of the film was the middle and the end did not live up to the tension, but overall worth watching.

I thought that the movie was interesting and amusing and entertaining and it kept me in suspense as to what would happen until there became some notion that nothing bad will happen and it sort of fell flat around 6/10 or 7/10 into the film. I liked the performances by Troy and the drug dealer. Beaver was a bit of a bore and I found that he did not act much at all just sort of behaved normally as any other day and so did the girl. So it was supposed to feel real like that film 'Kids' but their two performances just made it feel pretentious. Well, the decision of the woman in the film was far from realistic, and none of this would occur at such a level. I am angry that we did not get more of the drug dealer's story and Troy's story, as they are the only two who were interesting people and felt real. The others were forgettable and fake. Especially how she is a terrible cop who in no real way did any justice to the reality of tough, mature, and wise women who engage in such life and death behavior. It seemed to me like she was too sheltered to do this role and should stick to some sitcoms like Fuller House. But yeah, the guy who plays the Drug Dealer and his cousin Troy are good characters and actors and they made this film interesting. Some of the scenes were dragging on with the relationship between the two and the stereotypes were all there for every person built into a sort of dumb script but Sheiber and Grant did their part to perform in an adverse scenario. This writer needs to make a point and stick to it and focus on the strengths and drop the dead weight.

There were some aspects of this film that I thought were really interesting and showed glimpses of brilliance but in the end they were often unexplored. The character development itself was my biggest complaint. The main character's family struggle really just doesn't feel invested enough. The thin line between law and criminality, again, glimpses are shown but don't really emphasize but more lightly tread. The law enforcement pressure on their own, and later the circumstances surrounding the characters who are involved in crime was almost frustrating to watch because you are given a tease of how that could have been a major breakthrough, but to no avail.I will say that the setting, characters, and a few individual performances really kept me interested. The guy who played Wyatt ("pornstache") was sort of another level, and he really sold the performance. The main character seemed awkward in the beginning but that (to my surprise) is resolved later on.Overall I'd put this at around 6.5, nothing groundbreaking but some people with a niche for this subject will enjoy it.