Lapica would have been better off writing this script and leaving it in the hands of a director who could have objectively brought the film's powerful message to life.

| Original Score: 1.5/4.0 | Sep 22, 2020

... Monty Lapica has clearly found a new and successful form of self-medication; the art of film, starting with Self-Medicated. We should all have his strength and conviction.

| Nov 15, 2019

| Original Score: 2/5 | Nov 18, 2011

| Original Score: 1/5 | Nov 17, 2011

A more seasoned writer would steer clear of false, assembly-line contrivances.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Sep 5, 2007

It's just horrible stuff.

Full Review | Sep 4, 2007

It's a personal story that feels like it's been constructed from other movies.

Full Review | Original Score: C- | Sep 1, 2007

There are nice touches, particularly in Venora's performance and Timothy Kendall's editing, but the film's maudlin edge illustrates the dangers of directing your own material.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Aug 31, 2007

It's just a little too simplistic and not a very compelling story.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Aug 31, 2007

Though the script and storytelling could have used more polish, Lapica's honesty provides the lasting impression.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Aug 31, 2007

Monty Lapica's Self-Medicated is a powerful, personal piece of independent filmmaking

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/4 | Aug 31, 2007

As it stands, the film is more often self-absorbed than self-aware.

Full Review | Original Score: C+ | Aug 31, 2007

Lapica's lack of distance from his story is both the film's strength and its weakness.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4 | Aug 31, 2007

Note to fledgling directors: when making a movie, you don't have to do everything yourself. In fact, you probably shouldn't.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Aug 31, 2007

Self-Medicated must have been cathartic for writer-director-producer-star Monty Lapica to make, but its therapeutic value for audiences is questionable.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Aug 31, 2007

Heartfelt it clearly is. Disciplined and focused on what's truly intriguing about the story, not so much.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/4 | Aug 31, 2007

On the basis of this film, Monty Lapica, at 24, has a career ahead of him as a director, an actor or both. He also has a life ahead of him, which the film does a great deal to make clear.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Aug 31, 2007

The movie slides toward melodrama with some stale business about the hero spreading his late father's ashes and an embarrassing sequence in which a homeless man washes Lapica's car, delivers a benediction, and magically disappears.

| Aug 31, 2007

It's a precocious performance, although one with melodramatic moments that prevent Lapica from entirely dispelling the specter of vanity self-casting.

| Original Score: 2.5/5 | Aug 31, 2007

Lapica's debut impresses with its strong, clear voice and desire to tell a very personal story not just of substance abuse but of that abuse's painful root cause.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Aug 31, 2007