As a few have written here already, this is a film about addiction, albeit in a new, different and if you have not been personally touched by addiction, confusing way.
I also thought this film was a Sci Fi comedy about different realities akin to "The Matrix."
It wasn't until I began reading the other reviews that I realized it was about drug addiction. In this regard the filmmaker made a lot of assumptions, first and foremost that every viewer would get that the main character, played by Owen Wilson, was fighting his drug demons starting when he is snorting his pain medicine. (And once again the world is fed the false narrative that everyone taking an opioid must be abusing it, thus causing a lot of distress, hurt and potential to commit suicide for people suffering with chronic pain.) And this is the difference between those who suffer from addiction and those who are dependent on ANY medicine. The addict cannot function, as others do, in this world we live in without breaking laws, some social, some literal.
So I didn't pick up on the ingestion of little blue crystals as anything more than something as in Alice in Wonderland and NOT crystal meth. Even to the last frame did I never make a drug connection. If I had, I still would have watched the film, but wouldn't have sat there, as my companion did as well, never making the drug association. I'd suggest to future filmmakers to not assume your audience knows the world you are portraying and that it's your job to give them the information they need so they do.
