The Boost (1988)

Director:

Harold Becker

Writers (WGA):

Ben Stein (book)
Darryl Ponicsan (screenplay)

Release Date:

23 December 1988 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | Romance

Tagline:

Imagine having all the power, passion and pleasure money can buy. Now imagine losing them.

Plot:

Lenny Brown moves to California to find his fortune in tax shelter investments. When the federal government changes the tax laws...

Plot Keywords:

Cocaine | Drugs | Independent Film | Based On Novel | Based On Book

Awards:

1 nomination

Cast

James Woods	...	Lenny Brown
Sean Young	...	Linda Brown
John Kapelos	...	Joel Miller
Steven Hill	...	Max Sherman
Kelle Kerr	...	Rochelle
John Rothman	...	Ned
Amanda Blake	...	Barbara
Grace Zabriskie	...	Sheryl
Marc Poppel	...	Mark
Fred McCarren	...	Tom
Suzanne Kent	...	Helen
Libby Boone	...	Delores
Greg Deason	...	Michael
David N. Preston	...	Surfer (as David Preston)
June Chandler	...	Secretary

Runtime:

95 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Colour:

Colour

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Certification:

USA:R (certificate #29541) | Australia:R | Finland:K-16 | UK:18 | West Germany:16 | Iceland:12

Filming Locations:

Los Angeles, California, USA

Company:

Hemdale Film

Trivia:

All the scenes set in Mexico were actually filmed in Venice, California; the crew was unable to travel to Mexico, again because of the movie's low budget.

Quotes:

Max: [at Morton's Restaurant] ... This is my table. Everybody knows where I sit: waiters, guests, the whole bit... Look around you. A lot of tables, right? Wrong. Five tables. All the rest of the people come here to eat... Ray Tucker. Manages the money for half the Rams, all the Raiders, and anybody you ever saw on TV. Five percent off the top... Carter Davis, oil... Ricky Holtz, builds airports... Doc Gertz. He used to be a chiropractor; now he produces movies... And me. The five of us don't come here to eat.
[...]

Movie Connections:

Features "Jeopardy!" (1984)

The highs, Cocaine, and lows, Quaalude, of drug addition.

Modest little movie that went almost unnoticed when released in 1988, it took in just under 1 million dollars in total ticket sales. The movie "The Boost" is about as powerful in it's message about the destructive nature of drugs, legal and illegal, as the film "Days of Wine and Roses" was some 25 years earlier about the evils of alcoholism.

Down and out in New York City salesman Lenny Brown, James Woods, gets his big chance when real-estate tycoon Max Sherman, Steven Hill, takes notice of his innocent and boyish ability to charm people, that Max's associates didn't. Giving Lenny him a chance to show his stuff Max gives him a top job as a salesman for his firm back on the west coast. Lenny and his wife Linda, Sean Young, leave for L.A with a home and swimming pool a leased luxury Mercedes and high paying job there waiting for them. Lenny is easily up to the task in getting clients to buy Max's real-estate and within a year has worked himself up to become the most productive salesman in the real-estate business in L.A. It's then that things begin to go sour and Lenny just isn't up to the task of facing and dealing with them.

Making most of his sales due to tax shelters and right off the US Congress unexpectedly votes to close them putting the real-estate market into a tailspin as well as everyone, like Max & Lenny,behind the eight ball and in the red. Lenny for his part wasn't that economical with his money and not only spent it as fast as he earned it he also went hundred of thousands of dollars in debt expecting his future sales in real-estate to eventually pay them off. Broke out of a job and with no money to pay off his bills Lenny, as well as Linda, turn to the only thing that can make them forget their problems cocaine.

Gripping and disturbing film that doesn't have an happy ending with Lenny Brown blowing his whole life, and wife, away as he blows and gulps himself into oblivion on lines of coke and bottles of Quaaludes.

Top-notch performances by both James Woods and Sean Young as a young yuppie couple who get caught up with the wild and depressing times of the high flying and spending 1980's and crash from it's excesses in both money and personal, as well as private, entertainment. The movie ends with Lenny now totally hooked, and wiped out, on drugs talking to Ned, John Rothman,a NY Times reporter that he first met at the beginning of the film in New York City. Spilling his guts out in what looks more like an opium den then a one room apartment Lenny could only hope that Ned would write his story and have it published in the Times. His sad plight may very well help future Lenny's and Linda's from sharing the same fate.

P.S the film "The Boost" had actress Amanda Blake, who played Kitty on the 1950's & 60's TV Western "Gunsmoke", as Barbara in it as a washed up former showgirl and madam who, like Lenny, threw her life career and savings away by getting addicted to drugs. It turned out to be Amanda's last appearance as an actress on TV or in the movies as she died less then a year, on August 16, 1989, after the film was released.