The Boost is a 1988 American drama film directed by Harold Becker and based on the book Ludes: A Ballad of the Drug and the Dream by Ben Stein.

[2] It stars James Woods, Sean Young, John Kapelos, Steven Hill, June Chandler and Amanda Blake.

Their circumstances become increasingly desperate, worsened by a friend Joel Miller, who introduces both to cocaine for "a boost."

He has been relating his tale to a visiting New York friend, blaming others for his failures, and is reduced to a babbling shell of himself.

"[2] Leonard Maltin was not so kind, however, giving the film only one-and-a-half of a possible four stars: "A misfire that's on the screen for 30 minutes before you even realize that it *is* anti-drug...As with Jack Nicholson in The Shining, it's hard to distinguish the 'before' Lenny from the 'after'.