Starring the then unknown pairing of Gary Oldman and Chloe Webb in the lead roles, the film documents Vicious’ descent into heroin addiction after being introduced to the drug by the already-hooked Spungen. It makes for unsettling viewing, but rarely have the psychological highs of stardom and the pharmacological lows of addiction been filmed more compellingly. “I quit drinking back in October,” she recently said on The Ellen DeGeneres Show.
Whitaker, who we see struggling to control his drinking, has the opportunity to clear his name at the impending NTSB hearing. However, he tells the truth about being under the influence while piloting the plane. Although Whitaker ends up serving jail time, he uses his sentence to get clean.
Anne Hathaway has had quite the Hollywood career ever since breaking into the business as a teen to play a real-life Disney princess. You could say many fans grew up with Hathaway, thanks to her role in 2001’s “The Princess Diaries” and later 2007’s “The Devil Wears Prada,” which made her the movie star she is today. Over the past two decades, her career has continued to evolve with roles that have ranged anywhere from a drug addict, to a secret agent, to even a witch.
- “Everything Must Go” is a simple yet emotional story about someone trying to start over.
- If you are considering getting sober, our facility offers numerous programs that can help you overcome alcohol use for the better.
- When Daryl wakes up next to a woman who’s died from a cocaine overdose, he attempts to hide from the police and his company’s investigation in a drug addiction treatment center that will maintain his anonymity.
- Two years later she tuned up her comedy chops with no less a master of upscale slapstick than Steve Carell in “Get Smart” (2008).
Denzel Washington plays an airline pilot named Whip Whitaker in this 2012 drama. During the movie, an intoxicated Whitaker heroically saves most of his flight’s passengers during a crash landing. However, Whitaker spends the rest of the film examining the landing details under the microscope of a National alcoholic ketoacidosis Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) investigation. We could view Kym’s return to rehab as a failed attempt to reconcile with her estranged family. We can also see Kym returning to inpatient treatment with unsolved family issues as one of the outcomes facing a person who leaves rehab early.
The 14 Best Movies About Addiction And Recovery To Watch
“I don’t totally love the way I (drink) and (my son is) getting to an age where he really does need me all the time in the mornings,” Hathaway said. “I did one school run one day where I dropped him off at school, I wasn’t driving, but I was hungover don’t mix lithium and alcohol and that was enough for me. I didn’t love that one.” If you’re not interested in watching feature-length movies but are still curious about addiction recovery, we wrote a blog post about five of the most popular TV shows exploring teen substance use.
Instead of placing an emphasis on a romantic relationship between Gwen and one of the other patients Eddie (Viggo Mortensen), the film is focused on Gwen and Lily’s sisterhood. It’s a refreshing take dedicated to familial dynamics and one that still feels timely decades later. Gwen starts engaging with the community of recovery and looks at her life now and in the past, as she wrestles with flashbacks of her mother’s fatal overdose when she and Lily were kids. After her roommate Andrea (Azura Skye) dies from an overdose, Gwen commits to repairing her relationship with Lily and herself and she leaves her toxic boyfriend Jasper (Dominic West) once she realizes he will hurt her recovery rather than help it.
Maggie accompanies Jamie to a medical conference, where she ends up at a Parkinson’s support group across the street. She invites Jamie, and he meets a man whose wife is in the final stages of the disease and asks for advice. The man tells him to leave her, citing the downsides of the disease over time. Although in many ways she was trapped by her illness, she was also incredibly free and playing her allowed me to get in touch with that aspect of myself.
Nic wants to be a writer and is initially a good student with high hopes for his own future. But his sobriety flounders when he finds a bottle of pills in his girlfriend’s parents’ medicine cabinet. David learns that Nic is now using heroin and what ensues is a long story of a father trying to get help for his son. At the investigative hearing, Whitaker admits that he was drunk on the day of the crash, as well as during the hearing itself. While imprisoned, he helps his fellow inmates with their sobriety and begins rebuilding his relationship with his family.
Michael Keaton stars in this 1988 drama about Daryl Poynter, a successful real estate agent who suffers from the effects of cocaine addiction. Daryl’s drug habit lands him in legal trouble after he embezzles nearly $100,000 of his company’s money, then loses it on the stock market. When Daryl wakes up next to a woman who’s died from a cocaine overdose, he attempts to hide from the police and his company’s investigation in a drug addiction treatment center that will maintain his anonymity. She explained, “I’m going to stop drinking while my son is in my house just because I don’t totally love the way I do it, and he’s getting to an age where he really does need me all the time in the mornings,” she said.
Her Oscar win sidelined her career
Though largely overlooked by the awards ceremonies, the series earned Allison Janney, who played Christy’s mother Bonnie, a Primetime Emmy for her portrayal. After tasting mainstream success in The X-Files, David Duchovny went on to star in Californication, Showtime’s Emmy Award-winning series that ran from 2007 to 2014. Duchovny plays wisecracking Hank Moody, a writer with a series of addictions that worsen following a move to Los Angeles to work on an adaptation of his best-selling novel.
Co-hosting the Oscars damaged her reputation
The film shows how Charles’ heroin addiction stems from the guilt he feels over his brother’s tragic death. While he’s releasing some of his biggest hits, Charles’ addiction continues to spiral until his mistress Margie Hendricks (Regina King) dies of an overdose and he’s arrested for narcotics possession in Montreal. It’s a passionate, empathetic moment where two people who love each other profoundly realize the ways they could have done things differently. The film doesn’t shy away from the mistakes made en route to healing, which is a refreshing detour from other narratives that take a more sensationalistic approach to the self-destruction of addiction.
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Though the depiction of Cash’s romance with Carter may seem to play into the savior complex that addiction-focused movies often lean into, the translation of the pair’s real-life relationship to the silver screen is actually quite accurate. Anne Hathaway has formerly shared that she’s no longer drinking, joining a growing number of celebrities who don’t consume alcohol. At our Massachusetts addiction treatment center, we understand why many people choose to quit drinking, even if they haven’t been diagnosed with alcohol use disorder. Celebrities and everyday people don’t need to hit rock bottom to turn their lives around. This is not the first time Hathaway’s movies have dealt with drug addiction. Hathaway told IndieWire that Colossal is the “sci-fi companion” to her former movie Rachel Getting Married, in which she also plays a character struggling with drug addiction.
From coming-of-age teenage stories to sobering tales of childhood trauma and stardom, here are the best movies about addiction and recovery you should watch. Depictions of addiction and recovery are not sparse in Hollywood, as filmmakers have focused on telling stories of drug use, alcoholism, trauma, loss, and rehabilitation on-screen for decades. Though some films glorify the act of addiction rather than portraying the journey of recovery, there are still numerous movies that deliver honest, authentic performances of people both in recovery and actively coping with addiction.
“Wild” is powerful, emotional, and moving, and the film remains one of Witherspoon’s greatest acting feats. Few films about addiction and recovery commit so earnestly to emotional immediacy, but “Wild” does it with a refreshing kind of care that isn’t often seen in Hollywood. Griffith’s 1912 Coca-Cola-inspired flick “For His Son,” a silent film about a doctor creating an addictive soft drink containing cocaine (via Century Film Project). helping kids handle peer pressure Over the next century, films like “The Man With the Golden Arm” and “The Panic in Needle Park” told honest stories about how addiction can change people, while also highlighting the hurdles of recovery. While this is not the first time drug addiction has been used as a metaphor in the horror genre (e.g. Stephen Kings, The Shining), this is the first movie in a long time to identify the struggle and destruction of alcoholism.
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After Jim’s best friend Bobby (Michael Imperioli) dies from leukemia, he spirals into depression and begins using heroin. “Ray” concludes with Charles in rehab, suffering from vivid nightmares and visions while going through withdrawal. The film is an important depiction of how trauma informs addiction and the lengths it takes to heal from it.
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