A Day in the Life of Willie Faust, or Death on the Installment Plan
Synopsis
Jamaa Fanaka’s first project plays off the Blaxploitation’s genre conventions, an adaption of Goethe’s “Faust” presented with a non-synchronous soundtrack and superimposed over a remake of Super Fly (1972). Often out of focus with an overactive camera, the film immediately exudes nervous energy, but unlike Priest’s elegant cocaine consumption in Super Fly, Willie’s arm gushes blood as he injects heroin. A morality tale in two reels. —Jan-Christopher Horak
You might also like

A young girl whose father is an ex-convict and whose mother is a junkie finds it difficult to conform and tries to find comfort in a quirky combination of Elvis and the punk scene.
Out of the Blue

Kate lives a secluded life—until her troubled daughter shows up, frightened and covered in someone else's blood. As Kate unravels the shocking truth, she learns just how far a mother will go to try to save her child.
Echo Valley

A mother helps her daughter work through four crucial days of recovery from substance abuse.
Four Good Days

Over the course of one night, a woman drives across LA with her heroin addict brother in search of a detox center, with his two-year-old daughter in tow.
6 Balloons

A stark portrayal of life among a group of heroin addicts who hang out in Needle Park in New York City. Played against this setting is a low-key love story between Bobby, a young addict and small-time hustler, and Helen, a homeless girl who finds in her relationship with Bobby the stability she craves.
The Panic in Needle Park

A young boy trying to deal with his mother's heroin addiction befriends a waitress who helps him cope with the tough situation.
Pure

Because of the actions of her irresponsible parents, a young girl is left alone on a decrepit country estate and survives inside her fantastic imagination.
Tideland

The drug-induced utopias of four Coney Island residents are shattered when their addictions run deep.
Requiem for a Dream

A German student, Stefan, now finished with his studies, hitchhikes to Paris. There he meets a free-spirited American girl, Estelle, who he follows to Ibiza. The two begin a sad and dark path into heroin addiction.
More

After serving time in prison, former drug addict Sherry Swanson returns home to reclaim her young daughter from family members who have been raising the child. Sherry's family, especially her sister-in-law, doubt Sherry's ability to be a good mother, and Sherry finds her resolve to stay clean slowly weakening.
Sherrybaby

Jack Caine is a Houston vice cop who's forgotten the rule book. His self-appointed mission is to stop the drugs trade and the number one supplier Victor Manning. While involved in an undercover operation to entrap Victor Manning, his partner is killed, and a sinister newcomer enters the scene...
Dark Angel

After she ends up in prison and loses custody of her son, a woman struggles to assimilate outside her former life and remain clean long enough to regain custody of her son.
Clean

The story of Mötley Crüe and their rise from the Sunset Strip club scene of the early 1980s to superstardom.
The Dirt

A coming-of-age story of a reluctant 13-year-old hustler named Nathan who will do whatever it takes to feel loved.
Jet Boy

A recent widow invites her husband's troubled best friend to live with her and her two children. As he gradually turns his life around, he helps the family cope and confront their loss.
Things We Lost in the Fire

Two New Orleans paramedics' lives are ripped apart after encountering a series of horrific deaths linked to a designer drug with bizarre, otherworldly effects.
Synchronic

The Shadow Mountains, 1983. Red and Mandy lead a loving and peaceful existence; but when their pine-scented haven is savagely destroyed, Red is catapulted into a phantasmagoric journey filled with bloody vengeance and laced with fire.
Mandy

Juggling increasing career success and a growing heroin habit, a television comedy writer attempts to go down a path of improvement.


