The Boost is a 1988 drama directed by Harold Becker and starring James Woods and Sean Young. It was adapted from the non-fiction novel Ludes: A Ballad of the Drug and the Dream by Ben Stein. Stein and Darryl Ponicsan wrote the screenplay.
Lenny (Woods) and Linda (Young) Brown are a poor but loving couple devoted to each other. When Lenny is hired by real estate mogul Max Sherman (Steven Hill), the two finally have the wealth and financial stability they've always wanted. When new tax laws means they now owe thousands of dollars to the government, Lenny's friend Joel Miller (John Kapelos) encourages him to use cocaine as a "boost" to help him work hard enough to earn back the money. Lenny follows his advice, and he and Linda quickly descend into drug addiction.
The Boost contains examples of:
- Addled Addict: With the exception of Functional Addict Joel, cocaine turns anyone who uses it into a wreck of a human being only able to think about getting more cocaine. Lenny has it especially bad, and the ending implies he's just going to sink further and further until he's just like the homeless addicts he and Linda bought drugs from.
- Downer Ending: Lenny's addiction drives him mad and he beats Linda so badly she suffers a miscarriage. She cuts ties with him and is last seen weeping in her hospital bed. The film ends with Lenny mindlessly freebasing cocaine in a dilapidated apartment while insisting to Joel he'll recover any day now.
- Drugs Are Bad: To a melodramatic degree. Lenny and Linda are a happy, supportive couple, but using cocaine causes a constant parade of endlessly escalating misery for them until their lives are irreparably ruined.
- The Film of the Book: Adapted from Ben Stein's memoir Ludes: A Ballad of the Drug and the Dream.
- Functional Addict: Joel is able to use cocaine regularly and get a "boost" from it with no negative impact on his career. He recommends this method to Lenny, which unfortunately causes Lenny to become the other kind of addict.
- Sanity Slippage: Lenny's cocaine addiction drives him to madness and violent outbursts.