Review “Junkie” is a sometimes irreverent, but real look at drug addiction

Addiction in film is usually depicted as very dramatic, such as Four Good Days, featuring Mila Kunis and Meryl Streep. Or, the films are irreverent and self-deprecating for the addict, like Pineapple Express. Junkie, written and directed by William Means, straddles the line between both extremes. It’s a film that tracks a haphazard 72 hours after Stevie Chapman (played by Rockie Shay) escapes a court-ordered rehab in order to return home for reasons only she knows.

Through Stevie’s eyes, we see the struggles of someone whose life has already been damaged beyond repair by methamphetamines and other substances. With her best frenemy, Sherry (played by Jessica Lea Risco), and best dealer, Kyle (Kian Morr), Stevie takes the audience on an epic, unforgettable Southern odyssey that changes the woman forever.

The audience meets Stevie as she is freshly sprung from court-appointed rehab and is looking for meth. In the first 15 minutes of the film, there is theft, drugs, lies, and a hilarious catfight between aged addicts. In addition to drugs, Stevie needs money to leave town for good. However, she keeps getting high, and in doing so, keeps getting entangled in troubles that prevent her from leaving.

The escapades introduce other characters like her son Liam (played by Rett Keeter). This opens up another emotional side of Stevie that clashes with the haphazard addict we see bumbling through an escape plan. Liam not only has his own horde of traumatic memories from growing up with an addict for a mom, but he is also navigating a small town in the deep south as a queer man. Liam is finding his own way, and Stevie seems to be sending him off track.

Junkie isn’t the type of movie where Liam is the only remnant of the LGBTQ community depicted. In addition to Liam, there is Kyle, who is gay, black, and a respected entity around town. There are members who say wild, derogatory things about the LGBTQ community in the film. However, those comments are hardly left unchallenged. In fact, Liam has a moment that is heartwarming as Stevie finally finds a way to support her son and begin the process of redeeming her role as his mother.

There’s something about the story that sometimes gives a documentary feel before moving back into cinematic chaos as Stevie finds herself in yet another impossible situation. For example, when Kyle sends Stevie to finish up a deal, a fellow ex addict claims that she must be an informant to be out of “jail” so fast. Stevie loses the package and the money, and is forced to win it back in the most backwoods style “slap battle” you will ever see.

There is a poignant underlying message in Junkie, a simple one that comes about in the most convoluted way. Rockie Shay plays Stevie in a way that makes you hate her at first, but by the end of the film, the whole audience is rooting for Stevie’s next move.

According to the writer and director, Means, Shay embodied the character and was a way to humanize the term “junkie.”

“The initial idea for JUNKIE came as an attempt to process my own family’s struggles with addiction,” Means said. “But the story took full shape when I met our lead actress, Rocky Shay — a real recovered addict who lost custody of her children, fled three rehabs of her own, and let me use her personal journals to write this story. She gave her all to the film in the hopes of reconnecting with her own kids and — in the process — defied any preconceived notions of what a “junkie” may be.

Thus, the story introduces the audience to an actress to watch as well. “Her story was not the cliché of heavy despair and hardship, but one of wild highs and lows where joy and shame walked hand-in-hand down a hopeful path,” Means said.

Junkie is executive-produced by Patty Jenkins. It is currently making the film festival circuit. For more information, check out the recent American Film Institute (AFI) showing of Junkie.