George Jung (Johnny Depp) doesn't want to live like his father (Ray Liotta)--always short of money and constantly berated by his mother (Rachel Griffiths). So he sets off for California to live on the beach, where he finds he can make a living selling drugs. Soon George's drug dealing business expands into shipping drugs across the country. Needing a bigger supply of drugs, he travels to Columbia and meets Pablo Escobar (Cliff Curtis). Before long, George becomes the biggest trafficker of cocaine in the United States. In BLOW, director Ted Demme and scriptwriters Nick Cassevetes and David McKenna chart George's strange course into a world of girls and sun, drugs and fun. It's all so easy until events change George's life forever.

Depp gives one of his best performances as George, instilling the character with a complicated mixture of emotions. For the supporting roles, Demme's eccentric casting includes German actress Franka Potente as George's girlfriend; Spanish actress Penélope Cruz as his wife; Australian actress Rachel Griffiths (who in real life is five years younger than Depp) as his withering mother; and Paul Reubens (in an excellent performance) as a hairdresser-cum-drug dealer.