# Need film recommendations re: Addictions **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 2, 2002, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-film-recommendations-re-addictions/122021 "2002-08-02T14:43:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![screech-owl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/82dd89/32.png) [@screech-owl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/screech-owl)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2002, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-film-recommendations-re-addictions/122021/1 "2002-08-02T14:43:51Z")
What classic or modern films do you know of dealing with substance addictions, or where an addiction is the central or a major point to the plot? Offhand, I can think of only _Reefer Madness_ (marihuana), _The Lost Weekend_ (alcohol), and _Trainspotting_ (heroin). Any recommendations and which substances? Any favorites? ---
**Author:** ![WV\_Woman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e95f7d/32.png) [@WV\_Woman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WV_Woman)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2002, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-film-recommendations-re-addictions/122021/2 "2002-08-02T15:10:00Z")
Days of Wine and Roses, about a coupla married drunks. Really old movie, really depressing. 28 Days. Sandra Bullock is an alkie that ends up in rehab b/c the judge orders either jail or rehab. ---
**Author:** ![dantheman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dantheman/32/9421_2.png) [@dantheman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dantheman)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2002, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-film-recommendations-re-addictions/122021/3 "2002-08-02T15:14:11Z")
You could try _The Addiction_, which is about an addiction to blood (it’s about vampires, and it’s in black and white - made in 1995). ---
**Author:** ![Opengrave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/919ad9/32.png) [@Opengrave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Opengrave)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2002, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-film-recommendations-re-addictions/122021/4 "2002-08-02T15:15:15Z")
[The Panic in Needle Park](http://us.imdb.com/Title?0067549) ---
**Author:** ![scout1222](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/34f0e0/32.png) [@scout1222](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scout1222)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2002, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-film-recommendations-re-addictions/122021/5 "2002-08-02T15:23:05Z")
When a Man Loves a Woman (Meg Ryan, Andy Garcia) About her alcoholism. Made me sob like a son of a gun. ---
**Author:** ![Tretiak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a88e57/32.png) [@Tretiak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tretiak)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2002, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-film-recommendations-re-addictions/122021/6 "2002-08-02T16:54:28Z")
Rerquiem for a Dream is about all sorts of addiction. ---
**Author:** ![JohnBckWLD](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/d6d6ee/32.png) [@JohnBckWLD](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnBckWLD)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2002, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-film-recommendations-re-addictions/122021/7 "2002-08-02T16:59:34Z")
I second Requiem for a Dream and nominate The Basketball Diaries, the semi-autobigraphical story of Jim Carrol (who did that song “People Who Died”) ---
**Author:** ![rexnervous](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e9c0ed/32.png) [@rexnervous](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rexnervous)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2002, 5:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-film-recommendations-re-addictions/122021/8 "2002-08-02T17:14:56Z")
[Drunks](http://us.imdb.com/Title?0112907) would seem to answer your question. [Leaving Las Vegas](http://us.imdb.com/Title?0113627) probably as well. ---
**Author:** ![Vertiginous\_Annie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/a587f6/32.png) [@Vertiginous\_Annie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Vertiginous_Annie)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2002, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-film-recommendations-re-addictions/122021/9 "2002-08-02T17:50:03Z")
Who’s Afraid of Viriginia Woolfe - alchohol. It’s an incredible film - highly recommended. ---
**Author:** ![MovieMogul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f08c70/32.png) [@MovieMogul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MovieMogul)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2002, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-film-recommendations-re-addictions/122021/10 "2002-08-02T17:59:34Z")
_The Man with the Golden Arm_, with Sinatra as a heroin addict (one of the first mainstream Hollywood films to explore drug addiction). More recently: _Drugstore Cowboy, Sid and Nancy,_ and _Clean and Sober_. ---
**Author:** ![Drastic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Drastic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Drastic)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2002, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-film-recommendations-re-addictions/122021/11 "2002-08-02T18:32:06Z")
_Pi_ is by the same director as _Requiem…_, and is arguably also (partially) about addiction, albeit in a far more abstruse way. _Permanent Midnight_ is a decent drug-addict flick, starring Ben Stiller. ---
**Author:** ![Morbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morbo/32/389_2.png) [@Morbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morbo)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2002, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-film-recommendations-re-addictions/122021/12 "2002-08-02T19:27:59Z")
What? Nobody has mentioned the made for TV classic [_Desparate Lives_](http://us.imdb.com/Title?0083822)? Helen Hunt and the kid from _On Golden Pond_ star as brother and sister in a High School with, shall we say, a slight drug problem. - Helen Hunt takes some bad PCP and jumps out of a window while screaming “I’m Invincible!!” - Brother and girlfriend drive their car off a cliff while smoking (apparently reeeeeally good) dope, look at each other and say “We’re flying!! hee hee!!” before crashing and dying. - Teacher goes through everyone’s lockers and ends up with more drugs than Yasgur’s Farm… - Students at an assembly, after seeing all their drugs from the locker sweep in front of them, realize the error of their ways and solemnly walk up, en masse, and empty their pockets, which happen to be filled with even MORE drugs… ---
**Author:** ![divemaster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/divemaster/32/78_2.png) [@divemaster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/divemaster)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2002, 8:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-film-recommendations-re-addictions/122021/13 "2002-08-02T20:16:43Z")
**Bad Lieutenant** has at its core the depths a man sinks to because of his addictions. Amazing performance by Harvey Keitel. His character shows every vice imaginable: gambling (this is the big addiction around which the lieutenant’s life crumbles), booze, drugs, theivery, hookers, exploitation, and probably others I can’t remember. ---
**Author:** ![screech-owl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/82dd89/32.png) [@screech-owl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/screech-owl)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2002, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-film-recommendations-re-addictions/122021/14 "2002-08-02T20:23:16Z")
Thanks! These are great so far!!! Muchly appreciated folks. ---
**Author:** ![TPWombat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bbce88/32.png) [@TPWombat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TPWombat)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2002, 12:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-film-recommendations-re-addictions/122021/15 "2002-08-03T00:09:40Z")
[Brain Damage](http://us.imdb.com/Title?0094793) Kid wanders around with a kind of talking turd monster in his pocket that has him addicted to its bodily secretions. It uses this dependency to leverage him into luring victims to where it can chew into their skull and eat their brain. Yuk. ---
**Author:** ![TPWombat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bbce88/32.png) [@TPWombat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TPWombat)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2002, 12:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-film-recommendations-re-addictions/122021/16 "2002-08-03T00:13:44Z")
Oops, you wanted classic or modern, sorry. This is more low-budget cult (well, maybe). ---
**Author:** ![Banger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8491ac/32.png) [@Banger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Banger)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2002, 1:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-film-recommendations-re-addictions/122021/17 "2002-08-03T01:06:12Z")
[Habit](http://us.imdb.com/Title?0113241). This movie cracked me up. The protagonist is a toothless (definite fang issue) drunk whose life doesn’t seem to change much after he meets his vampire girlfriend. Before vampire girlfriend: stay out all night and wake up on a subway. After vampire girlfriend: stay out all night and wake up in the park. I was less worried about her turning him into a vampire and more worried about him turning her into an alcoholic! ---
**Author:** ![obfusciatrist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/4af34b/32.png) [@obfusciatrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/obfusciatrist)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2002, 1:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-film-recommendations-re-addictions/122021/18 "2002-08-03T01:16:32Z")
Others I can think of: _Clean and Sober_, alchohol (with Michael Keaton) _Monkey on My Back_, morphine _Losing Isaiah_ (Jessica Lange and, I think, Halle Berry) - crack baby issues _Traffic_, cocaine mostly _Cold Turkey_, cigarettes, a comedy in which a millionaire pays a town to go cold turkey ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2002, 2:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-film-recommendations-re-addictions/122021/19 "2002-08-03T02:08:15Z")
[The Boost](http://us.imdb.com/Title?0094783) has James Woods and Sean Young blowing it all on blow. Not too bad, especially the final scene with a totally gone James Woods. He doesn’t do bad playing a coke head. ---
**Author:** ![saoirse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/5daacb/32.png) [@saoirse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/saoirse)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2002, 2:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-film-recommendations-re-addictions/122021/20 "2002-08-03T02:38:38Z")
JohnBckWLD, I thought \* The Basketball Diaries \* was the worst possible adaptation of that book. I mean leaving aside the fact that 4’2" Leonardo DiCaprio portrays 6’2" Jim Carroll, and can’t play basketball to save his life (they should have gotten the guy who played Carroll in \* The Goat, \* an HBO movie about Earl Manigault). There is no sense in the movie that heroin is in any way enjoyable, or that it would have any attraction. I mean, the script could have been written by Nancy Reagan. I know Carroll approved it, and appeared in it and all, but it’s been a good thrity years since he wrote it, and is a very different person.