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Permanent Midnight
 
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Permanent Midnight (1998)

Starring: Ben Stiller, Maria Bello Director: David Veloz Rating: R (Restricted) Format: DVD
3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (34 customer reviews)

List Price: $14.98
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  • This item: Permanent Midnight DVD ~ Ben Stiller

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Product Details

  • Actors: Ben Stiller, Maria Bello, Jay Paulson, Spencer Garrett, Owen Wilson
  • Directors: David Veloz
  • Writers: David Veloz, Jerry Stahl
  • Producers: Don Murphy, Jane Hamsher, Robert Leveen, Yalda Tehranian
  • Format: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD, Widescreen, NTSC
  • Language: English (Dolby Digital 5.1)
  • Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  • Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
  • Number of discs: 1
  • Rating: R (Restricted)
  • Studio: Lions Gate
  • DVD Release Date: February 23, 1999
  • Run Time: 88 minutes
  • Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (34 customer reviews)
  • ASIN: 6305260621
  • Amazon.com Sales Rank: #72,770 in Movies & TV (See Bestsellers in Movies & TV)
  • For more information about "Permanent Midnight" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Like the book it is named after and based on, Permanent Midnight is a chronicle of downfall. Jerry Stahl, the story goes, showed promise when doing shifts as a porn writer for Hustler and Penthouse, and his promise landed him in the exact center of television's hottest shows of the 1980s. Alas, Stahl also brought with him a gargantuan appetite for drugs, most damagingly heroin. The film begins with Stahl, played by Ben Stiller, working in a fast-food chain on his way back to society from the drug-addled skids and recovery. He's lured away from work, where in a hotel room with Maria Bello (as Kitty) he begins detailing his fall from TV's top (where he wrote for shows like Alf and Moonlighting, among others). Director David Veloz does great work in leading viewers through the episodes in addiction and excess, making the action seem naturally odd. There are priceless shots of Stahl and his coke-smoking buddy on an upper floor of a high-rise smoking and leaping into the windows--which don't break, of course. Stiller does a classy job of staying monochromatically zoomed in on scoring and shooting dope. He's sweaty and freaked out at the right times and grimy and desperate, too. The movie's a sad one, with Stahl's journey taking him through an arranged marriage (which benefited him enormously) to the couple's having a baby to getting busted on a rare occasion alone with the infant. It's a visceral script, replete with lots of intravenous drug use and Stahl/Stiller creating a recurring motif out of shooting the bloody drawback from the syringe onto the ceiling, making a mad little scribble. --Andrew Bartlett


Product Description

This film is based on the acclaimed autobiography of a television writer jerry stahl who learns about the dark side of hollywood. Special features: directors commentary deleted scenes digitally mastered interactive menus scenes access theatrical trailer production notes cast and crew information. Studio: Lions Gate Home Ent. Release Date: 02/18/2003 Starring: Ben Stiller Elizbeth Hurley Run time: 88 minutes Rating: R

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34 Reviews
5 star:
 (10)
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 (11)
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 (7)
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 (1)
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Average Customer Review
3.6 out of 5 stars (34 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars A Good Horrible Movie, April 7, 2004
People that compare movies to the original books are always going to be disappointed. That's no big mystery to anyone who's both read a single book or seen a single movie. Nuff said on that.

The movie is definitly a good one because it is very dark, and very real. Reviewers that bashed this movie are obviously clueless regarding drug use, drug users, and addiction. This movie is definitely disgusting and depressing because of its plausibility, and that's what makes it good. To have the perfect wife (Elizabeth Hurly), the perfect job, and still do anything and everything to get high demonstrates how the need overpowers someone's life. Permanent Midnight is "A Good Horrible Movie".

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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars Episodic but riveting, January 10, 2007
By Larry VanDeSande (Mason, Michigan United States) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)   
Movies rarely hold the same allure as the books from which they arise and that's the case here. "Permanent Midnight" portrays the harrowing experinece of a television script writer that was also a heroin addict.

Ben Stiller stars as Jerry Stahl, whose autobiography is the basis for the film. Stahl appears in a brief role as a physician treating his own (through Stiller) addiction. This is an interesting insofar as the physician -- the real life drug addict -- is very downbeat about Stiller's chance of kicking heroin for its substitute.

Elsewhere, a lot of today's A-list actors -- Owen Wilson (who had a middle initial in the credits), Maria Bello (who got great reviews in "A History of Violence"), Elizabeth Hurley, Sandra Oh, Cheryl Ladd and Jeanene Garofolo -- lend a lot of credibility to this episodic treatment. Probably most riveting, and most revolting, are Stiller's regular scenes of drug use...during breaks in meetings at work, in the bathroom during parties, while taking care of his child. In another scene, he interviews for a job with a TV producer while high. The flick concludes with sound bytes from interviews Stahl did with TV talking heads (Morey and Tom Snyder) with Stiller digitally added to the scene.

I thought Stiller transformed himself into a serious actor for the role and the good supporting cast clearly helps; still the film is too episodic to score higher than average. This biopic is mature fare and sometimes very difficult to watch, especially a scene where Stiller, in the car with an infant, mainlines heroin through a vein in his neck. It also loses points since none of the actors show any signs of age as its chronology progresses.

Still, there's often something interesting going on or something you probably haven't seen before by such name actors. There was a lot more drug use here than in "Trainspotting" where the cast was compprised 100 percent of heroin addicts. So check this out if you're up to it; you might find it rewarding.
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6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Midnight Express, March 22, 2000
By "isz" (Texas) - See all my reviews
Hello, My Name is ..., and I have never shot Heroin. I fear the needle (ignore the tattoo) and fail to relish in the sadistic reactions to the drug. However, were I to awaken to a new day of increased favor towards needles and IV drug use, the viewing of this film, and the performance handed to us by Ben Stiller, has already assured me that I shan't dive into the abyss of said narcotic. You hate to use words live "riveting" and "brilliant", although clearly at ease with his psychotic side, Stiller makes me believe that a man would attempt to crash through a window post "drug-induced-euphoria". One wishes Janeane Garofalo had a few more moments on-screen, but what she added was probably enough. I haven't read the book (an oddity for me, actually), but I fear that I shall quite soon. I was drawn into the story from the get-go, though I wonder if that was due to the shooting by Veloz, or by Stiller. Either way, this "dark comedy (from whence that title came, I am still unsure)" darkened my day, and caused a bit of thought to occur - never a bad thing.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars Interesting, slow, depressing
Based on the autobiography of Jerry Stahl who is playhed by a very subdued Ben Stiller(no humour here). Read more
Published on August 3, 2007 by Seth J. Frantzman

3.0 out of 5 stars Maria Bello as Savior; Amen Brother!
This little movie, "Permanent Midnight," almost makes it. I had a four-star review going for it right until the final scene where what could have been a capstone moment, simply... Read more
Published on March 29, 2007 by M. Swinney

1.0 out of 5 stars Permanent boredom!.
Ben Stiller stars in this independent drama film about a top Hollywood scriptwriter Jerry Stahl who appears to have the perfect life he has lots of cash, an attractive wife and a... Read more
Published on April 27, 2006 by Puzzle box

3.0 out of 5 stars Requiem for a Permanent Midnight with Jesus' Son and the Drugstore Cowboys
Admittedly I'm guessing here, but it would seem that the lurid fascination of drug-themed films has diminished considerably in recent years. Read more
Published on December 4, 2005 by Gregor von Kallahann

5.0 out of 5 stars Permanent Classic
This movie is an excellent addition to my collection. Ben Stiller shows how good of an actor he really is. Read more
Published on September 10, 2005 by A. Mastro

4.0 out of 5 stars Permanent Love Team
In PERMANENT MMIDNIGHT, director David Veloz smooths out the hard edges from Jerry Stahl's riveting autobiography of the same name. Read more
Published on August 29, 2005 by Kevin Killian

5.0 out of 5 stars See Jerry The Geek Hollywood Scriptwriter Inject Heroin!!!
In this movie based on a true story we see Jerry Stahl played by Ben Stiller. Jerry is a geek Hollywood scriptwriter who turns out junk for sitcoms although he thinks he is... Read more
Published on August 21, 2005 by John Baranyai

3.0 out of 5 stars Drugs, Drugs and more Drugs...
It was interesting to see Ben Stiller (and Owen Wilson for that matter) taking part in something so different from their usual and yet wonderful comedies. Read more
Published on April 11, 2005 by L Gontzes

5.0 out of 5 stars An excellent movie!!!!!!!
Ben Stiller's performance in this movie was unreal. He portrayed the character of Jerry Stahl as what you would expect as a Heroin addict but not as a writer for popular... Read more
Published on November 7, 2004 by Dominick Juliano Jr.

3.0 out of 5 stars ...not as good as the book...
Well, are any movies EVER as good as the book? (Fear and Loathing in LV, maybe....) I had one really, really big problem with the movie: Mr. Chompers. Mr. Read more
Published on May 10, 2004 by Amber LeClaire

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