If you can get past the fact that this was essentially just a vehicle for the Soviet Union's biggest rockstar with a paper-thin plot, this low-budget Russian-Kazakh movie is oddly charming, in a grimy, off-beat sorta way, kinda like - closest comparison that comes to mind - the Blaxploitation movies of the West. If anything, the standard drug-based plot bolstered by a terrific soundtrack (and pervading sense of Cool, but not quite effortless Shaft-levels of Cool) makes me want to lump this in with b-movie schlock like Superfly (1972).
Viktor Tsoi plays a drifter who meets an old friend, finds she's on dope, takes her away for a few weeks to get her off - only for her to relapse when they get back. Meanwhile, he stirs-up trouble for the local drug ring - climaxing in the final scene of the movie (and the most memorable) in which he walks down a snow-covered lane, gets shived by one of the goons, and is left to wander of into the night-time drift - like Shane or John Wayne riding off into the sunset - bleeding, his fate uncertain.
As far as celebrity vehicles go (especially musicians), this one's better than most of its American counterparts.
Review of The Needle
