Drunks

Drunks is a watered down version of Gary Lennon's play "Blackout," a gritty, human story about a group of sober and on-the-verge alcoholics who gather for an AA meeting in the basement of a New York City church. The eclectic cast of drunks includes Spalding Gray, Dianne Wiest, Faye Dunaway, Parker Posey, and Richard Lewis, who plays Jim, a man haunted by the bottle and his carefree past. The film disjointedly alternates between Jim's personal narrative and individual AA confessionals. Disappointingly, the players are more like stereotypical caricatures of everyday drunks ranging from the wine cooler to the scotch variety, their stories a tumbler of cliched insights into the world of an alcoholic. Not recommended. (A. Glover)