Amoeba Music

There's something comforting in movies about a small-time guy who ends up making it big despite the odds. But, as the Horatio Alger Myth goes, that small-time guy usually squanders his chance at sustaining wealth and power. The Boost is about Larry Brown (James Woods), a rigid freelance salesman based out of New York. He's too busy doubting himself and making his situation appear more glorious than it actually is—so busy that he doesn't realize that he's found what most people look for their entire lives: unconditional true love.

Based on the book Ludes: A Ballad of the Drug & the Dream by Ben Stein, the story is one of those “boys and girls get off the bus to come to L.A.” tales that leaves your mind fuzzy and with a bitter taste in your mouth. Lenny was lucky enough to find a gorgeous, hard-working woman to marry him and believe in him—even when he makes a fool of himself. With his risky profession as a salesman and hers as a paralegal, the two did alright for themselves. While figuratively drowning during a particular sale and groping for a lifeline, he ends up catching the eye of Max Sherman: a man gifted at taking little fish and turning them into soaring birds. Sherman works in Southern California real estate and wants the over-achieving Lenny on his team. So Lenny starts seeing dollar bills and asks his wife Linda (Sean Young) to take a risk with him and move to Los Angeles.

And since L.A. can be charming (if you're exposed to the right parts of it), Lenny and Linda are seduced upon arrival; the driver waiting to pick them up at the airport; the news from Sherman that he's set them up in a house in the Hollywood Hills. So the girl who claimed that their love would make everything alright eventually became dizzy with the prospect of having the money and the time to not have to hustle and eventually start a family. Linda also wanted to continue doing ballet, though she knows she's too old to do it professionally.

On his first day on the job Lenny makes $5,000 in the first hour. Sherman treats him like a son and loans him his Mercedes, promising that once he's earned enough money, he'll give him a good deal on it. He also expects him to pay for the house in the Hills once things get rolling. And they do. Linda takes up ballet, indulging in her postponed dreams, and doesn't have to support the two of them for once. He buys her a new convertible and a puppy. The whole ordeal is so full of fairytale nonsense that it's like you're watching a '90s melodrama with nods to Disney. For the first half, that is.

By the time Lenny's made some upscale acquaintances and they've attended their first party, reality starts to settle in. Linda feels out of place and Lenny's steady brown nosing, in that desperate harem scarem way that only Woods can pull off, repulses her. The two notice that the host of the party, Joel (John Kapelos), is very odd, and so is his company, including his vamp of a girlfriend, Rochelle. They discover that they're all on coke and try to dismiss it for the sake of some kind of friendship. Lenny continues to crawl, apologize, beg, and scrap for a higher step on the ladder. He buys a plane and gets suckered into starting a nightclub in Mexico with Joel. He keeps taking risks and jumping into icy water just to prove to the big boys that he can swim with the rest of them. He spends so much of his money on new toys and flash that when the real estate market gets a scare and wards off investments he's unprepared for the dry spell that rich people usually greet with a bundle of investments and savings.

While he's venting about his problems to Joel he's offered cocaine, which his shady friend claims is not habit- forming and is sure to give him a boost that will make his head clear. Sure enough, it perks him right up and by the end of the night he's convinced Linda to try it.

Well, you can imagine the story from there on. He steals from his boss's account to pay for his habit and impress his friends and ends up losing his job, the car, the home in the Hills, and much more. Still, he walks way with his girl and his pseudo-dignity, allowing him to keep fighting against the tide. They move and Lenny has his first overdose then moves from cocaine to quaaludes. Their story ends disastrously, going from dump to dump and getting exposed to all kinds of violent situations. And as pre-'90s and clichéd as it is, it's always been one of my favorite anti-drug, “success gone to spoils” stories.

The movie didn't do well, with its atrocious soundtrack and heavy anti-Hollywood/anti-drug sentiment, but that doesn't matter much to me. The chemistry between Young and Woods is what makes it work. Many criticize the film based on the dialogue and the acting, claiming that it’s unrealistic and forced. What they fail to notice is that there is a lot of dialogue—more than your usual Hollywood film, and it’s expected to hold everything together. They also, in my opinion, fail to notice that a lot of the dialogue between the two stars was improvised, which might be due to the fact that they're fleshing out extensions of themselves. Woods always tries hard and comes off crazy and awkward, and Young is a frail, pale, trained ballerina. The two are polar opposites that complement each other and represent the two contrasting emotional sides of people who peruse fame and fall short—the wholesome people with virtues who learn to beg, lie, and steal. The heavy dialogue reminded me of a stage drama, and the fact that it's a movie, with a soundtrack and a big budget, took away from its success more than the performances and the story did. Some say it’s a good movie to see for people who like the stars in the film, but I like it just because.