What ar the best movies about alcoholism/addiction?
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Join Date: Jan 2020
Location: Florida
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The movie I always think of is Arthur. The 2011 remake was good in that (don't want to spoil it) it took a little different twist at the end in relation to his heavy drinking. Actually I think that movie was part of my inspiration.
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Leaving Las Vegas
Probably "Leaving Las Vegas" - reading about the author of the book, the movie was really his fantasy about alcohol. Dying in a beautiful woman's arms. In reality, he shot himself. His father even tried to get him locked up in jail thinking it would give him time to get the son some help. A sad tale all around. But the movie, the endless drinking and the wreckage - well, I thought it captured things well.
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I’m certainly not anti-alcohol as it’s fine for sensible moderate drinkers, but I feel that TV and cinema do paint alcohol in an overly positive way. Hard drinkers are often perceived as macho, for example. I can’t think of a film which is purely about an alcoholic who recovers or how about an alcoholic who gets sick. That’d be quite a plot with liver transplants, donors, the physical recovery and the psychological storyline. Imagine destroying your liver with alcohol and then getting a healthy liver from someone much younger who’d looked after their health. I don’t think I’d cope with that last point, and hearing of so many drinkers needing liver transplants was the main reason I quit. I think such a film would be very watchable and moving.
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Join Date: Jul 2020
Location: England
Posts: 315
And Girl on a Train has alcoholism as it's central theme but not a film about alcoholics per say
Documentries; Rain in my Heart
Old before My Time..with Cheryl Healy
The Wet House
The Drugs Map of Britain
Inside Britain's Red Light District
Girls on the Street
Saving Ed Mitchel
Brian
Crack House
Through a Blue Lens
The Ice Age
Documentries; Rain in my Heart
Old before My Time..with Cheryl Healy
The Wet House
The Drugs Map of Britain
Inside Britain's Red Light District
Girls on the Street
Saving Ed Mitchel
Brian
Crack House
Through a Blue Lens
The Ice Age
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Join Date: Jun 2020
Location: Ontario
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I asked the same question when I first joined back in June and watched a ton of them.
It depends a little bit on what you're looking for as you've got a bit of a sliding scale in terms of how "heavy" they are.
If you're looking for something sort of light and cheesy that deals with alcoholism on a pretty surface level, I'd recommend 28 days.
If you want something that's a little weightier but still has a hopeful spin; go with either When a Man When Loves a Woman or Smashed.
If you want to kind of feel like crap based on how ugly and honest addiction is depicted; go with Requiem for a Dream or Leaving for Las Vegas.
It depends a little bit on what you're looking for as you've got a bit of a sliding scale in terms of how "heavy" they are.
If you're looking for something sort of light and cheesy that deals with alcoholism on a pretty surface level, I'd recommend 28 days.
If you want something that's a little weightier but still has a hopeful spin; go with either When a Man When Loves a Woman or Smashed.
If you want to kind of feel like crap based on how ugly and honest addiction is depicted; go with Requiem for a Dream or Leaving for Las Vegas.
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Join Date: Dec 2018
Posts: 405
Somebody mentioned the Arthur remake with Russell Brand but my vote goes to the original with Dudley Moore.
There is a poignant moment in the very first scene of the movie when he is having dinner with the prostitute. Arthur is portrayed as a fun loving filthy rich carefree lush, but in between cracking jokes he pauses and asks the prostitute "do you like me?" It was delivered masterfully and really underscored the inherent sadness present in addiction no matter how things appear on the surface.
There is a poignant moment in the very first scene of the movie when he is having dinner with the prostitute. Arthur is portrayed as a fun loving filthy rich carefree lush, but in between cracking jokes he pauses and asks the prostitute "do you like me?" It was delivered masterfully and really underscored the inherent sadness present in addiction no matter how things appear on the surface.
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Join Date: Jan 2020
Location: Florida
Posts: 6,424
The original Arthur with Dudley More is probably in my top 25 movies of all time. When I was single in the 80s, it was the perfect date movie.
Perhaps strangely, Courage Under Fire was a movie I loved to watch while smashed myself.
Perhaps strangely, Courage Under Fire was a movie I loved to watch while smashed myself.
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