Richter is a lazy son of a wealthy woman, who's put up with too much so no more money. He's about to lose his local newspaper job arranged by his mom. Richter owes money to a violent drug dealer/blackmailer but sees his wife. Death wish?

Richter Boudreau, the son of local celebrity Cynthia, is not very successful and works as a film critic for a local newspaper. In a short time he loses his job and his heritage, and one of his "friends" starts to blackmail him. His only hope is that others around him are even bigger dummies.—Anonymous

Richter Boudreau (Eric Stoltz) is a perpetual loser who comes from a wealthy and privileged family in Tulsa, Oklahoma and works as a movie reviewer at a local newspaper only because his sour mother Cynthia (Mary Tyler Moore) pulled strings for him to land the job. He is dissatisfied with the direction that his life has taken; he is about to be fired from his job because he can't meet deadlines, lives in a dilapidated farmhouse, consumes drugs behind the scenes, his girlfriend Trudy (Cameron Diaz) breaks up with him, and he is so behind on his bills that his electricity his been cut off. Richter also owes money to Ronnie Stover (James Spader), an abusive drug dealer. Ronnie is married to Vicky (Deborah Kara Unger), a beautiful woman who was disowned by her socially prominent family for her involvement with Ronnie. Richter is still in love with Vicky despite having ended their relationship years before. Vicky is the sister of Keith (Michael Rooker), a misogynistic alcoholic whose large inheritance fails to soothe his anger, loneliness, and depression. Cherry (Joanna Going) is an exotic dancer from Chicago who buys drugs from Ronnie and gets romantically involved with Richter. Ronnie plans to blackmail Bedford Shaw (Marco Perella), the son of a socially prominent businessman named Harmon Shaw (James Coburn), after Cherry tells him that Shaw murdered her friend, a stripper/prostitute, in a motel room and that she took photographs. Ronnie attempts to involve Richter by having him hold on to a mysterious black pouch and by exploiting Richter's newspaper connections. Richter wants no part of the blackmail scheme. But he gets in over his head when Keith discovers that Richter has been sleeping with Vicky.—Larry B.