The Gift was brilliant

He wrote, directed and acted in The Gift.
A brilliant, suspenseful thriller, developed to the ultmate conclusion.
He was also excellent in Felony, which he wrote.
He breathes fresh air into the stale, formulaic, derivative film industry.
I believe Joel first came to the attention of international audiences with Aminal Kingdom,
The film was partly based on a notorious drug dealer, Dennis Allen, who lived in inner-city Richmond, Melbourne, near where I live.
Allen was a sociopathic drug trafficker who was making a fortune from heroin in the 1980s and was believed responsible for perhaps 10 murders. Allen died of a heart attack, probably caused by a combination of heroin and cocaine.
Cocaine is a lethal, addictive drug which destroys the arteries and leads to heart attack, which has afflicted many celebrities. Whenever you read a celebrity had heart surgery or dies prematurely from a heart attack, sadly, cocaine is often the culprit.
Allen was paranoid, due to drug use, erratic, dangerous and violent, and believed police snipers were installed at the top of a nearby industrial silo. Caveat emptor.