Just Say Know Movie Review

The centerpiece of this DVD collection of short films by Tao Ruspoli is the eponymous movie, the longest on the disc at just 35 minutes in length, wherein Ruspoli follows three subjects to get behind the secrets of their drug addiction. The catch: They are all his relatives.

Father Dado (he had a small role in The Godfather: Part III) is an old-school opium smoker who gave it up after many years of addiction due to a lung condition. His mother and brother are heroin junkies -- mom a pretty used-up specimen who fortunately cleaned up before hitting bottom, his brother Bartolomeo really just getting started on the road to hell.

What separates Just Say Know from other drug documentaries is the candid nature with which the subjects discuss drugs, their addictions, and themselves. The senior Rsupoli is the most engaging, full of theories about it being impossible to overdose on opium, descriptions of drug rituals, and diatribes against casual cigarette smokers, whom he says are poisoning themselves by treating tobacco with improper reverence.

Mom Debra and Bartlomeo are interesting, but to a lesser degree, but since Tao keeps the film short and sweet and rarely lets your mind wander. For a refreshingly honest and original look at the effects of drugs on real people, this is a real standout short.

The Just Say Know DVD is actually presented as a sort of "collected works" disc, adding five other very short shorts (Burning Man slide show, anyone?) that can probably be safely skipped.