First of all, amazing soundtrack. You can take a lot of things off of this film, but never this fact: Freddie Redd Quartet kick ass (and they're in the movie, as well: all of the unnamed characters here on Trakt castings go by their real names: Freddie, on the piano; Larry, the drummer; Jackie, sax; and Michael, bass).
Except from Jackie, little acting, lots o' playing.

Second to that, it's definitely not a flawless effort, but maybe the best way to watch it is knowing that from the start, specifically for the characters:
We have a greenhorn director trying to catch the reality of addicts lives. He doesn't know where to start, they don't know what to do. And the movie tries to give us the pace of those folks: uncertain, confused and many times, confusing.

I'm not very fond of all the acting here (specially the character Leach), but being patience you get a lot of great moments. Sam and Solly are great, and from these two come the best lines on the picture.

It's important to take note: the movie was based upon a theatrical play and it tried to reproduce the theater feel. The place where it happens, the monologues etc. And I'd say it deserves some praise for that, it's nicely done and kinda transports us to that place.

All in all, even with the less engaging sections, we have here a great soundtrack (you can find quite easily to stream the album, although it's the theatrical play soundtrack), some good punchlines and yes, a lot of great shots. The movie has some really good ones (like one scene where all of them are playing together).

Now... If you analyze the junkies behavior, well, I don't think it's quite accurate. But, summing it up: 1962 and mostly I don't think that's the point.