Cook County (film)

Cook County is a 2008–2009 American independent drama film written, directed, and produced by the Houston-based filmmaker David Pomes. The film stars Anson Mount, Xander Berkeley, and Ryan Donowho. It deals with the effects of methamphetamine addiction on a Texas family.

In an interview appearing on indiewire.com, Pomes stated: "The story began about people who I have been around, living outside of civilization, out in the woods, down a dirt road with all the old stereotypes: the roof caving in and the tires in the front yard. The story is about that group of people, and the family trying to be a family in the backwoods environment. Crystal meth was always out there. I was never at any crystal meth parties or anything like that, but there were always people where I lived outside of Houston. Those are the characters in the film, but crystal meth really drives the story. It's the vehicle."[1]

Not having direct contact with meth addicts, Pomes read widely on the subject of drug addiction. Pomes recounted in an interview for Filmmaker Magazine: "I did a ton of research. Mostly just through the Internet, through magazine articles and things of that nature. I did a lot. There is so much out there. People on meth like to talk about it. They like to take [sic] about the process of making it, the problems they have with it. There are tons of blogs out there, websites, people write songs and poetry about it [laughs]. Not in a good way necessarily, or a glorifying way, but just how it’s affected there [sic] lives. There’s recipes out there, you don’t just have to make it one way. There’s a bunch of different ways to do it. We found lots of pictures of people on meth and meth labs and used those to inspire us a bit for wardrobe, makeup, art direction, the general aesthetic of the movie."[2]