I was fortunate enough to stumble into the 7pm showing of the Chet Baker documentary, Let’s Get Lost at the Northwest Film Center on Saturday night. Right now, there are two used VHS copies on Amazon selling for $50 and $100 each, which if I had a VHS player, would be well worth it. Honestly, I think this is probably among the best five movies I have ever seen. How does a man go from this:
BAKER: Before heroin…

To this?
BAKER: After heroin…

Interviewer: What’s your favorite high?
Chet Baker: The kind of high that scares most people to death.
Interviewer: What’s that, Chet?
Chet Baker: A speedball.

The moral of the story, I think, is that if a man is good-looking and talented enough, and lacks the willpower to go to rehab, well then, he’s doomed to be an asshole until he dies. But what a story. The way he treated his kids? His wives? Incredible. If you get a chance to see it, go. It’s such a humane piece of cinema, it’ll tear you to bits.