What to Watch This Weekend: Orange Years, Higher Love, Run, Leap of Faith, Last Vermeer, Dating Amber, Over the Moon, The Secret

For That 90s Nostalgia - The Orange Years: The Nickelodeon Story (Digital)

The Orange Years: The Nickelodeon Story had me revisiting my childhood, with plenty of clips, insights, information, and enough slime to remind me why this network played such an important part of my young life!  For more information, check out the review!

For A Window Into Addiction - Higher Love (Digital)

Higher Love is an unfiltered, raw, and emotional look at the effect of drugs and addiction on an American family and all the highs and lows that come from that.  For more information, check out our review!

For The Thriller Fans - Run (Hulu)

Run has some fantastic performances by Paulson and Allen in a tense, psychological thriller that will have you holding your breath and your heart rate running.   For more information, check out our review!

For The Horror Fans - Leap of Faith (Shudder)

Leap of Faith is a fascinating and frank dialog about one of the most influential films ever made, with wonderful insights and amazingly honest critiques from the director.  For more information, check out our review!

For The History Buffs - The Last Vermeer (Theaters)

The Last Vermeer is a work of historical art, with meticulously crafted characters, an attention to historical detail, and a mystery that slowly reveals itself with each story brushstroke.  For more information, check out our review!

For Those Looking For Identity - Dating Amber (Digital)

Dating Amber is a quirky, funny, and heartfelt story of love, sexuality, and identity that puts a new twist on the queer coming of age tale.  For more information, check out our review!

For the Kids - Over the Moon (Netflix)

Over the Moon is out of this world amazing, with beautiful animation, classic Disney influences, catchy musical numbers, and a lunar adventure that kids and adults will learn from and love.  For more information, check out our review!

For The Romantics - The Secret: Dare to Dream (Redbox)

The movie that stars Katie Holmes and follows a woman looking to follow their dreams, this film has a very high viewer score and is now available at Redbox!

Higher Love Review: A Raw, Unfiltered, and Emotional Look at Addiction in America

Release date: November 3, 2020
Running time: 78 minutes

A blue collar worker tries to rescue his pregnant, heroin-addicted girlfriend from the notorious streets of Camden, NJ and her close-knit group of drug users. Once their son is born, he forces her to choose between her life with her drug "family" and one with him and their child.

Higher Love is a painful documentary to watch, with a story that is probably all too common in America today.  A family is torn apart by drugs, and the film follows the drug addict's attempts to kick the habit.  Despite knowing everything that the drugs are doing and how it is affecting their lives, the drugs or the lifestyle always call them back.  And the film documents this in painful detail, showing both parties and their lives in stark, real situations.  You see how it affects them day to day, and the barriers that they put up for recovery.  The film mainly focuses on the family, but it also brings in stories from other individuals affected by drugs.  From recovering people, to those who are on and off the wagon, the movie follows a variety of stories that coincide and interact with the main family.  And it also includes interviews with those individuals, allowing them to speak freely and honestly about the drug habits and what that does to them and those around them.  It paints a very real, very painful, and ultimately unfiltered picture of drugs and addiction in America.

And what this movie does so beautifully and sadly is that it tells these stories carefully and honestly, with no prejudgment or influence by the film.  The actions of the individuals involved are shown with care and clarity, leaving the viewer to take it in.  Judgment might be made, but it is not the filmmakers who are trying to force those.  And the story of the film is a slow one, but that just lets you experience this little slice of life to the fullest.  There are some time jumps, but generally the movie shows day to day life for those experiencing and living with addiction.  And it follows them for enough time that you really see the effects that drugs can have on a family, and what that means for more of America.  It is an unfiltered look into what is happening all over the country, and might give you an appreciation of just how bad this crisis is.  And in that unfiltered look you see some frank conversations and some very emotional moments.  

Higher Love is an unfiltered, raw, and emotional look at the effect of drugs and addiction on an American family and all the highs and lows that come from that.  

Watch it.

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Higher Love is available digitally and on demand November 3, 2020.

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