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Oct 8, 2023 · The Lost Weekend, Leaving Las Vegas, and Flight are among the best movies about addiction, alcoholism and recovery.
- 10 Movies That Accurately Portray Drug Addiction - Collider
From Spun to Requiem for a Dream, we look back at some of...
- 10 Movies That Accurately Portray Drug Addiction - Collider
- Rachel Getting Married. While many may know director Jonathan Demme for tense horror and thrillers like "The Silence of the Lambs" and "The Manchurian Candidate," he also has made several dramatic films about outsiders, who are misunderstood or not accepted by others.
- When a Man Loves a Woman. Luis Mandoki's "When a Man Loves a Woman" takes its title from Percy Sledge's song of the same name and centers on Alice Green (Meg Ryan), a school counselor, who drinks excessively.
- Clean and Sober. After establishing a career in comedy in movies like "Mr. Mom" and "Beetlejuice," Michael Keaton transitioned into drama in Glenn Cordon Caron's "Clean and Sober."
- Wild. Jean-Marc Vallee's 2014 biopic about Cheryl Strayed's solo backpacking trip across the Pacific Crest Trail focuses on a self-imposed path to recovery after a long struggle with heroin addiction.
- Days of Wine and Roses
- Notorious
- Krisha
- Trainspotting
- Clean & Sober
- Drugstore Cowboy
- Smashed
- Traffic
- Half Nelson
- When A Man Loves A Woman
Written by JP Miller (adapted from his own teleplay) and directed by Blake Edwards (Breakfast at Tiffany's), this drama stars Jack Lemmon as a problem drinker who ropes his romantic partner (Lee Remick) into his lifestyle. In 2018, Days of Wine and Roses was selected for preservation in the National Film Registry.
Arguably Alfred Hitchcock's most exquisite film (yes, Notorious really is on the same level as Vertigo), this elegant thriller cast Cary Grant and Ingrid Bergman against type as bitter lovers tangled in a post-World War II spy mission in South America. Bergman plays a drunk with a haunted past. Selected by the Writers Guild of America as one of the...
Trey Edward Shults made his debut feature on a shoestring budget in his parents’ home, using his family as actors. Krisha tells the story of a troubled alcoholic who seeks to make amends with her family over Thanksgiving. Inventively using stylistic choices of horror cinema to heighten the drama, Krishais a tiny movie that will knock you flat. At i...
Based on a novel by Irvine Welsh, Danny Boyle's iconic adrenaline rush, depicting a posse of heroin addicts in Edinburgh, is hilarious, fun, nightmarishly horrific, and stomach-turningly gross—often all within the same scene. That's what makes it so effective, so true to life and exhilaratingly cinematic. This was the international breakthrough of ...
In a departure from his early work mostly in comedies, Michael Keaton starred in Glen Gordon Caron's drama about a real estate agent whose life becomes unmanageable. In his positive 1988 review, film critic Roger Ebert(himself a recovering alcoholic) said:
Gus Van Sant's harrowing second feature, based on an autobiographical novel by James Fogle, chronicles a network of drug addicts in the Pacific Northwest. Starring Matt Dillon, Drugstore Cowboy long-boasted a rare 100% on Rotten Tomatoes that in recent years has slipped to 97%. Also worth watching: Van Sant's relatively lighter addiction-themed Don...
Leaving an impression in everything from offbeat genre pics (Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, Final Destination 3) to top-shelf, award-winning dramas (Fargo), Mary Elizabeth Winstead has always been great. She's characteristically terrific (as is co-star Aaron Paul) in this drama about a schoolteacher who decides to surrender after a string of emba...
Based on a British television serial, Steven Soderbergh's epic drama won four Oscars: Best Director, Best Supporting Actor (Benicio del Toro), Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Film Editing. Traffic explores the trade of illegal drugs from several perspectives.
Ryan Gosling earned a Best Actor Oscar nod for his portrayal of a middle school history teacher who smokes crack in this altogether brilliant drama directed by Ryan Fleck, co-starring Shareeka Epps and Anthony Mackie. Related: 10 of the Best Movies About Mental Health
One of Meg Ryan's all-time great performances is front-and-center in this romantic drama about a wife and mother whose problem drinking leads her to rehab. Co-starring Andy Garcia, When a Man Loves a Woman examines alcoholism as a family disease, and the issue of enabling. Ryan received a SAG nomination for Best Actress for her work here.
- Flight (2012) Robert Zemeckis’ Flight stars Denzel Washington as “Whip” Whitaker, a pilot who gains a Sully-esque reception after he (relatively) safely lands his out-of-control aircraft in a field.
- The Lost Weekend (1945) The Lost Weekend was thoroughly controversial upon release—pressure from the liquor industry nearly got the film shelved. It was the first time that a mainstream Hollywood film had addressed alcoholism, and the timing was right: American soldiers returning from fighting in World War II were beginning to confront the challenges of both post-war trauma and readjustment to life on the home front, and may were struggling.
- Beautiful Boy (2018) Based on twin memoirs from father David Sheff and son Nic Sheff, Beautiful Boy stars Timothée Chalamet as Nic, a teen whose methamphetamine and heroin use threaten his own life, and drive a wedge between himself and his father, played by Steve Carrell.
- Permanent Midnight (1998) Another movie based on an addiction memoir, this influential indie film from 1998 (you can tell it’s the ‘90s by the prominent placement of “Smack My Bitch Up”) stars Ben Stiller as novelist Jerry Stahl, who recounts his life and struggles with addiction in-between frequent pursuits of sex.
- Georgia May
- Beautiful Boy (2018) Directed by Felix van Groeningen. Starring Steve Carell, Timothée Chalamet, Maura Tierney. Biography, Drama (2h) 7.3 on IMDb — 68% on RT.
- The Basketball Diaries (1995) Directed by Scott Kalvert. Starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Lorraine Bracco, Marilyn Sokol. Biography, Crime, Drama (1h 42m) 7.3 on IMDb — 47% on RT.
- Flight (2012) Directed by Robert Zemeckis. Starring Denzel Washington, Nadine Velazquez, Don Cheadle. Drama, Thriller (2h 18m) 7.3 on IMDb — 77% on RT. Some people can't even get out of bed when they're hungover, while others can fly planes.
- Ray (2004) Directed by Taylor Hackford. Starring Jamie Foxx, Regina King, Kerry Washington. Biography, Drama, Music (2h 32m) 7.7 on IMDb — 79% on RT. The majority of the population could never play the piano (or saxophone, or organ, or trumpet, or clarinet...)
May 29, 2024 · There are plenty of movies that show the "before" but only a few that get into the dirty side of addiction. These movies don't always have happy endings, either, but they can all serve...
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Jun 26, 2024 · From Spun to Requiem for a Dream, we look back at some of the most accurate films about drug addiction. This article contains themes that some readers may find upsetting. Reader discretion is...
