Addiction is a difficult topic that’s been approached and explored throughout various films, sometimes effectively and sometimes not so much. While addiction can happen with things that aren’t substances (see something like Uncut Gems, which is an exploration of gambling addiction and a ceaseless quest for adrenaline), the most common thing for addiction-related movies to tackle is drug use, including excessive alcohol consumption.
These films are difficult and often not entertaining in the traditional sense, but when they're done well, they can shed light on very human vulnerabilities and experiences. The following movies are all underrated or lesser-known films about addiction, sometimes because they're extra challenging and uncompromising in nature. They’re difficult but important movies, and all can be admired for various reasons, be that authenticity, the strength of the acting, the emotions contained within, or even all of the above.
10 'Sid & Nancy' (1986)
Director: Alex Cox
Image Via Palace Pictures
Serving as both a biographical film and a dark romantic drama, the titular figures of Sid & Nancy are Sid Vicious (the bassist for Sex Pistols) and Nancy Spungen (his girlfriend). It’s a grim time and not exactly a Sex Pistols biopic, given the film deals with the band’s break-up relatively early on, and then focuses on the two lead characters as they continue their self-destructive and harrowing romance.
It’s based on real events, and the film opens in a way that ensures even those who don’t know the history will be aware that the film itself ends tragically. Sid & Nancy is naturally a daunting watch, and showcases the role that drug addiction played in the short lives of both titular figures. It’s an intentionally harrowing, nihilistic, and despairing sort of film.
Breaking Bad is a TV show where the manufacturing and selling of methamphetamine was key to the plot, and it thereby also touched upon (sometimes very accurately) the topic of drug addiction. It was a series that starred Aaron Paul, and while it was ongoing, he also featured in a movie about alcohol addiction called Smashed, alongside Mary Elizabeth Winstead.
Admittedly, it’s very different to that aforementioned show, beyond the Aaron Paul and addiction connection, with Smashed being more of a romance/dramedy about relying too much on booze to have a good time, and the way that even a legal substance like alcohol can harm one’s life and relationships. It’s vital in showing how moderation or abstention is key, or that at least a level of control is needed to not put one at risk of alcoholism, conveying this message in a way that ultimately doesn’t feel preachy.
Living up to its title by being gritty and quite grotesque throughout, Filth is a darkly comedic crime movie that thrives largely thanks to the performance of James McAvoy at its center. He portrays a cop with a chaotic life, struggling with various disorders and addictions as he tries to hold onto his job and regain the trust and support of his family.
Filth is certainly a feel-bad movie, and while it has some degree of honesty in the way it portrays addiction, it’s not balanced in the sense that it doesn’t offer much by way of hope. Movies about addiction can build towards recovery or a path out of such a life, or they can be more cynical/downbeat and show the opposite. Filth, while bleakly funny at times, is certainly more in the latter camp than the former.
Filth
Release Date September 23, 2013
Runtime 97 mins
Main Genre Comedy
7 'The Panic in Needle Park' (1971)
Director: Jerry Schatzberg
Image Via 20th Century Studios
Before he was Michael Corleone or Tony Montana, Al Pacino starred in The Panic in Needle Park, which stands as one of his most underrated movies and perhaps the earliest indication of his talents as a film actor. It takes place in a particularly desolate-looking New York City, and follows the lives of a group of heroin addicts, mostly focusing on Pacino and a young woman played by Kitty Winn.
The two form a bond and have a relationship throughout that’s naturally tested as the addiction worsens and life becomes gradually harder. The Panic in Needle Park is gritty enough to feel of its time in a way that’s still effective. Films from the late 1960s and then throughout the 1970s sometimes had a dauntingly realistic and grounded feel to them, and that style coupled with this movie’s subject matter makes it a tough but ultimately powerful watch.
Crime motivates the lead characters of Drugstore Cowboy, with Matt Dillon and Kelly Lynch playing young people who live dramatic lives that revolve around robberies and drugs. Primarily, their crimes involve stealing drugs they then use to get high (often from, as the title suggests, drugstores), but the film also demonstrates how, after a high, there’s oftentimes a low.
That might sound a bit structurally simple, but Drugstore Cowboy is naturalistic and grounded in a way that makes it feel quite real throughout. It’s a look at an undesirable kind of life, but it also has enough of a sense of empathy to suggest why these characters engage in such a lifestyle. There’s an inevitability to some of the sadder things that happen; things come crashing down, and it’s hard to watch, but it always seemed to be going that way.
Drugstore Cowboy
Release Date October 20, 1989
Runtime 102
Main Genre Crime
5 'Heaven Knows What' (2014)
Directors: Josh Safdie, Benny Safdie
Image via RADiUS
As mentioned before, Uncut Gems is one of the best movies about addiction that doesn’t revolve around drug use or alcoholism, but it wasn’t the first time the Safdie Brothers directed a movie about addiction. With 2014’s Heaven Knows What, they crafted a similarly downbeat and harrowing look at drug addiction, centering on the experiences of a young woman who’s hooked on heroin.
The film was notable for its casting, with Arielle Holmes playing a semi-autobiographical role, with her character’s life mirroring her own experiences with drug addiction, in some ways. Other films about addiction – underrated or otherwise – benefit from a sense of authenticity, but Heaven Knows What goes the extra step in this regard, making it feel all the more brutal, real, and disturbingly honest in the way it unfolds.
Image via Lux Compagnie Cinématographique de France
The Fire Within is a stark and somber drama film, and one that still packs a punch more than six decades on from its initial release. It follows a man after he leaves a detoxification clinic, fairly sure his alcoholism has been treated, though it becomes clear that his life has become emptier and seems to have lost meaning for him, since being treated.
Things then play out with a suggestion that he may be planning to end his life, though he goes around and tries to contact those he’s close with before ever going through with it for sure. So, yes, The Fire Within is bleak, and doesn’t offer easy answers. It’s about the struggles that can happen for a person even after addiction is, on the surface, “treated” or “cleared.” Broadly speaking, the movie also works as a difficult exploration of the human condition, and the way one responds to losing purpose in life.
An Australian film starring Abbie Cornish and Heath Ledger, Candy is another film about addiction that explores the way such a thing affects two people in love, as well as their relationship itself. The premise itself might sound familiar, but it’s the quality of the acting here that really sells Candy and makes it stand out among other movies that tackle a similar central narrative.
Authenticity is the word of the day, when it comes to describing Candy, which sugarcoats nothing but also makes sure not to be too relentlessly downbeat, or at least not depressing in a way that feels contrived or overly dramatic. It’s a film that’s tender at times, and harsh at others. The balance is there and overall, it’s a successfully empathetic viewing experience.
With the same central premise as The Fire Within, Oslo, August 31st (part 2 of a thematic trilogy) feels almost like a remake at times, but still finds more than enough to do to ensure it doesn’t feel like a retread of that film. Taking place – and being made – almost 50 years later changes a good deal, as does the fact that the central character here is a recovering drug addict rather than someone who was being treated for alcoholism.
Oslo, August 31st is also about that difficult so-called post-recovery period; about trying to find a new spark in life, once the option to get lost through substances has ceased to be. There’s very little here that feels hopeful, and the film is undeniably successful at being honest about the difficulties one might face once out of a rehab center. Both this film and The Fire Within nakedly show how recovery never truly ends, and can remain an ongoing battle of sorts throughout life.
A relentless film, and one where calling it challenging would be an understatement, Christiane F. pulls absolutely no punches in depicting the descent a young girl’s life takes once her friends introduce her to drugs. Things start slightly risky, but ultimately exciting, only for the substances to get stronger and the consequences, in turn, get more severe, with fun escapes leading to nightmarish descents.
Though it would be risky to show to young people of a certain age, one also gets the sense that Christiane F. would stand a chance at being a successful deterrent to drug use. It’s forceful, but not exactly preachy, successfully illustrating why the titular character makes the decisions she does before showing how those decisions have consequences she couldn’t have foreseen. Christiane F. wants viewers to see the film at a certain age, and foresee. It’s not subtle, when viewed through adult eyes, but the way it hits like a sledgehammer is effective, and perhaps even has the potential to change minds and shift lives.
Image via Nordisk Film Distribusjon
Image Via Palace Pictures 
Image via Sony Pictures Classics. 
Image via Steel Mill Pictures 
Image Via 20th Century Studios 
Image Via Avenue Pictures 
Image via RADiUS 
Image via Lux Compagnie Cinématographique de France 
Image via Dendy Cinemas 
Image via Nordisk Film Distribusjon 
:quality(85):upscale()/2023/02/22/727/n/3019466/7139a92963f6429109d310.19360920_.jpg)
English (US) ·