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Thursday, September 16, 2010

Directed by Joonas Neuvonen

Reindeerspotting is a hard hitting Finnish documentary which centres around Jani, a twenty year old drug addict from a northern town of Rovaniemi, Finland. He hates living in a town so remote from anything and spends his time shooting up Subutex and getting high on various pills and other drugs. Getting in trouble with the law is a regular activity as well because wouldn't you know it, he has to take down scores in order to pay his debts and finance the drug habit. Jani dreams of nothing more than to be able to leave Rovaniemi for something bigger.

I'm gonna come off like a heartless asshole I guess, but I just don't have any sympathy for Jani or his friends who are all getting high on various shit. I don't give a shit. Addiction is not a disease, it's a choice. They've made their's and that's it. There is so much information given to teens and children alike about the dangers of drugs and if they still want to get fucked up on them, hey, they're on their own as far as I'm concerned. It's like when some people always go on about Jim Morrison.. "oh isn't it horrible how he got into all that and died so young..?" no, no it isn't, ok?! With all that we know of the dangers of drug abuse, if anyone is still stubborn enough to shoot up, why in hell should I be worried about protecting a guy who's stupid enough to not wanna protect himself by just simply staying away from that stuff? We've all got problems, ok? Drugs are never the answer. Duh! It's like Denis Leary said "Life sucks, get a fucking helmet!"

As a documentary, Reindeerspotting is semi-interesting because on one hand it really does show the day to day life of a drug addict in 2003 very, very gruesomely and in your face. It is quite interesting to see how bad the youth of our nation is feeling at it's worst and how it deals with it by escaping reality with substance abuse. On the other hand it is just the drug abuse that we're shown for a good 83 minutes plus some travelling around Europe. The central character of this documentary film, Jani was found dead recently in Asia as he hung himself and the pictures taken by a local news agency were put up on the internet. This got the film some extra attention. The critics of Reindeerspotting have accused the film for presenting drug abuse in a positive light but after watching the film I cannot imagine where that argument comes from and all I have to say to them is that the fact that they clearly show someone shooting up really doesn't promote the activity itself, you morons.

KITEYTETTYNÄ SINIVALKOISILLE
Reindeerspotting on koruton ja lohduton kurkistus huumeaddiktin surkeaan ja rikosten kierteessä vietettyyn elämään. Tätä dokumenttia on syytetty huumeiden käytön ihannoinnista, mutta filmin katsottuani en tajua miten helvetissä tuo argumentti pitää mitään katetta. Se että näytetään jonkun tykittävän paskaa suoneen ei todellakaan provosoi ketään järkevää ihmistä itseään leikkimään neuloilla. Sitä paitsi ihmiset tulevat käyttämään huumeita jatkossakin ja sitä ei voi estää sensuroimalla dokumenttielokuvaa. Oma myötätuntoni näitä käyttäjiä kohtaan on kovin vähäinen sillä addiktio on AINA valinta, EI tauti. Elokuvana Reindeerspotting on jokseenkin kiinnostava, mutta se näyttää silti lopulta vain pelkkää kaman vetämistä ja vähän Euroopan reissaamista. Kauhisteltu hype on siis todellakin ollut liioiteltua.

Reindeerspotting at IMDb

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I want to see this, but I'm so afraid of needles...! By the way: nice blog. Luv to read your reviews.

EdWood said...

Thank you so very much.. about reading the blog, not for being afraid of needles :D

Danielle said...

Right on about Jim Morrison! Thank you for saying it out loud!
Love your blog, the wild mix of films, and your occasional rants. Huge fan :)

Anonymous said...

Jani kuoli, yks narkkari vähemmän :) Vois hei kattoo joskus jonkun leffan yhdessä. Se Kauhee Kankkunen on vielki mul näkemättä. Tiina