Most critics like Drugstore Cowboy, and the praise lands in the same place: Matt Dillon. Nearly every review that gives a verdict singles out his performance as Bob, the thieving addict who narrates the film, and more than one credits him with holding the man’s charm and his physical decline in the same frame. Beyond Dillon, the reviews agree that Gus Van Sant treats drug use honestly, without either romance or sermon, and that the film is funny and easy to watch for something so bleak. Kelly Lynch draws a mention from Variety.
The reservations are few and mostly about the ending. Empire finds it abrupt; The Guardian finds it conventionally upbeat for a film otherwise so clear-eyed. Nobody dislikes it. Two of the seven reviews, from The New York Times and Time Out, are on record but their verdicts are not readable, so the spread among the rest is narrow, running from warm to warmer.