Gus Van Sant's dreamy, drifty, deadpan second feature an addiction drama based on James Fogle's autobiographical novel captures the zonked-out textures and almost surreal absurdity of a life lived fix to fix. Swinging between dope-fueled disconnection and edgy paranoia, Matt Dillon plays the leader of a ragtag crew that robs pharmacies for pills, coasting across the 1970s Pacific Northwest while trying to outrun sobriety and fate. With a brilliant supporting turn from counterculture high priest William S. Burroughs and a lyrical feeling for the streetscapes of Van Sant's hometown of Portland, Oregon, Drugstore Cowboy cemented the director's status as a preeminent poet of outsider hood.