The aspect of the film that may prove audience-resistant is its uncompromising honesty. The story focuses on the slow corruption and inexorable violence with which drug addiction undermines a tenuous network of human lives in south London (with accents that may prove difficult even for Anglophilic American ears.) Nil by Mouth is not an easy film to watch, but for the patient, it may prove quite rewarding. It is unarguably well-made.

Oldman has a fine grasp of contemporary urban tensions, of the volatile mix of rough humor, rougher words, and out-of-control behaviors that seethe like crack liquefying in a spoon. His loping narrative style eloquently catches the moments of humanity that struggle to flourish in the midst of this prevailing hopelessness. The film’s characters live on the edge at every moment; it is part of their addiction, it is part of the high they more and more feverishly seek. It is also what wears them down, wrings them out, and tosses them aside like rinds.

Only occasionally does Oldman let a scene stretch or allow one of his colleagues to get a bit self-indulgent. Overall, both Oldman’s writing and his sensitive direction are models of stylistic efficiency and movingly articulated emotion. He and his fine actors achieve a naturalism so powerful that, in some moments, we feel as though we are watching an extraordinarily riveting documentary.