Toxicology

Mimi is a perpetually broke filmmaker with a tenacious coke habit and drinking problem who's only managed to make one film in her so-called career. Her friend and neighbor down the hall in her West Village apartment building is Eleanor Delacroix, an aging writer coming to grips with her own mortality while dealing with both the death of her lover Yvonne and her own addictions. Both need something from the other, but the true nature of that need is only gradually made explicit over the course of poet, playwright, and novelist Jessica Hagedorn's latest novel, Toxicology. Along the way, Hagedorn constructs an orbit of drug dealers, strippers, and art collectors for Mimi to drift through while she tries to stay high and avoid some harsh facts: her teenage daughter Violet seems to be following in her cross-addicted footsteps; her undocumented cousin Agnes has gone missing and is presumed dead; and she hasn't had a coherent idea for a new film in years. Writing in a scattershot, briskly paced style, Hagedorn convincingly replicates the anxiety and chaos of her characters' inner and outer lives, but too often cuts away or relies on a flat, humorous note to defuse her more emotionally charged scenes. Her control of the material, however, carries this complex story through, and Toxicology wraps up with a satisfying, poetic gesture that feels unexpectedly hopeful.