Clean and Sober (Blu-ray Review)
- Review Date: Jun 11, 2025
- Format: Blu-ray Disc
-
Director
Glenn Gordon CaronRelease Date(s)
1988 (April 29, 2025)Studio(s)
Imagine Entertainment/Warner Bros. (Warner Archive Collection)- Film/Program Grade: B+
- Video Grade: A
- Audio Grade: A-
- Extras Grade: D-
Review
[Editor’s Note: A very small amount of discs that were initially shipped out to customers contained errors that have now been corrected. If you purchased this release and it does not contain stereo audio, you’re eligible for a replacement disc. To receive instructions on how to acquire one, e-mail Movie Zyng (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.) with your original receipt, even if you purchased the disc elsewhere, and they will assist you.]
Throughout its history, Hollywood has shined a light on addiction, with films like The Man with the Golden Arm, The Basketball Diaries, The Panic in Needle Park, and Beautiful Boy. In Clean and Sober, a drug-addicted real estate broker finds himself at rock bottom and desperately tries to find a way out of his dependency.
Darryl Poynter (Michael Keaton) is addicted to both alcohol and cocaine. To support his habit, he stole money from his company’s escrow fund, lost it in an investment that tanked, and is now burdened with debt. Like many addicts, he’s in denial about his dependency. After a night of drug-fueled partying, he awakens to discover that his girlfriend has overdosed and must be rushed to the hospital.
Darryl’s life has been a series of lies contrived to present a straight front and he’s been, for the most part, successful. But now, his actions have mired him in insurmountable difficulties. To avoid criminal charges for embezzlement and questions about his involvement in his girlfriend’s overdose, he admits himself to a drug rehab center for the required 48-hour detox program, intending to resume his drug habit thereafter.
Rehab counselor and former user Craig (Morgan Freeman) is strict about following rules. Darryl lies repeatedly and tries to game the system, even telephoning a work colleague and asking him to FedEx him cocaine at the clinic. He meets fellow addict Charlie Standers (Kathy Baker), is assigned a sponsor, Richard (M. Emmet Walsh), and voluntarily enters a 30-day program, where he tries to face reality and come to grips with what his addictions have cost him.
Keaton, best known at the time for comedies such as Beetlejuice and Night Shift, tackled his first dramatic role with Clean and Sober. As Darryl, he projects a broad range of emotions that includes frustration, anger, desperation, sensitivity, and remorse. His quick manner of speaking, wide darting eyes, and twitchy body movements convey a man under terrible stress. Keaton’s likable screen presence allows his character to be sympathetic even though he’s done bad things. In a heart-wrenching dramatic highlight, Darryl telephones his parents, whom he hasn’t spoken to in a long time, to reluctantly ask them for money. As he suggests they mortgage their house, Keaton lets us see into Darryl’s soul and understand the magnitude of his pain, self-loathing, and despair.
Kathy Baker is touching as recovering addict Charlie stuck for years in a bad marriage to a drug user. Charlie stays in rehab to get her life together and holds a responsible job in a factory mill. She seems cool at first but becomes more open as she warms to Darryl and we learn more about her background. Baker reveals decency beneath the label of drug addict.
M. Emmet Walsh is the voice of common sense, reason, hard truth and conscience as Richard. Supportive through Darryl’s struggles and setbacks, he constantly prods him to take the necessary steps to get his life back in order. Richard is a tough-love father figure who knows that perseverance is the only way Darryl can better his life.
Director Glenn Gordon Caron doesn’t soft-pedal the detox process. We see one man sitting quietly in the rehab lounge until he throws a projectile through a TV screen, screams madly, and runs through the halls cursing. This behavior is caused by withdrawal symptoms. Darryl is seen retching late at night when his system is crying out for cocaine. The process isn’t sanitized for the film. There’s little background on fellow rehab patients other than Charlie, so we discover only tidbits about them in a brief group session scene. What’s significant is that the script by Tod Carroll doesn’t take shortcuts in portraying obstacles for a drug user to come clean. An ironic touch is the fact that addicts usually develop appetites for something other than drugs. Many in rehab smoke. Richard has turned to high-calorie food. These alternatives may not be great, but at least they serve as helpful crutches.
The film loses its way somewhat in the final third, when a potential romance develops between Darryl and Charlie. This might be realistic since they can empathize with each other, but it’s an all-too-familiar way movies veer into a romantic subplot and seems to be the go-to idea when writers have trouble drawing a story to a close.
Clean and Sober was shot by director of photography Jan Kiesser on 35 mm film with Panavision Panaflex cameras and spherical lenses, finished photochemically, and presented in the aspect ratio of 1.85:1. The Blu-ray is sourced from a new 4K scan of the original camera negative. Clarity and contrast are very good with details, such as beads of sweat on Darryl’s face, items in Craig’s office, the exterior of Richard’s house, and furniture in the rehab clinic’s lounge well delineated. Color palette tends to darker, drab hues in keeping with the tone of the story. Distinctive 1980s “big hair” for female characters reflects when the film was made.
The soundtrack is English 2.0 DTS-HD Master Audio. Optional English SDH subtitles are available. Dialogue is clear and distinct. Directional sources are apparent in conversations and cars moving from one side of the screen to the other. Most of the scenes are interiors. The score by Gabriel Yared serves the narrative without overwhelming it but is not especially distinctive.
The only bonus extra on the Region-Free Blu-ray release from the Warner Archive Collection is the film’s theatrical trailer (1:24).
In Clean and Sober, Darryl is Everyman. His story is like many others and is just one instance of how addiction reaches into other aspects of a user’s life. Darryl isn’t a crazed monster. He’s an average guy trapped in the cruel grip of addiction and despair. Though his story is troubling, it never seems exaggerated. Keaton is honest in his portrayal of a man on the brink.
- Dennis Seuling