Warner Bros. This subject matter isn’t easy to translate to the screen. Addiction hijacks and reshapes the brain, making good people behave in a way that’s unlike themselves. It’s not easy to make something so internal cinematic, or to make audiences connect and sympathize. We’ve selected films that go above and beyond in their representation of a difficult topic. This list includes many movies about substance and alcohol abuse, and we’ve also included pictures about other addictions, like workaholism, gambling and sex addiction. Some of these films actively explore the process of recovery; others do not. The primary requisite for a spot on this list is a truthful, respectful depiction of a complex, often misunderstood disease that affects millions of American families. Here are 30 of the best movies ever made about addiction and alcoholism. The plots of some films are discussed in detail.
Best Movies About Addiction and Alcoholism
1. The Lost Weekend (1945)
Billy Wilder’s classic film noir is a touchstone for addiction on film: highly acclaimed in its day, and the winner of four Academy Awards including Best Picture. Ray Milland won Best Actor for his portrayal of an alcoholic New York writer. The Lost Weekend also shared top honors at the inaugural Cannes Film Festival.
2. A Star Is Born (2018)
Melodrama sometimes gets a bad rap, one it doesn’t inherently deserve. Something of a spiritual successor to the great pictures of Douglas Sirk—glossy on the outside, and profound the deeper you dig—Bradley Cooper’s remake of—well—three movies, centers on a fading rock star (Cooper) who’s a depressed mess, and a rising pop star (Lady Gaga) he becomes involved with. Cooper’s pop masterpiece is a grand entertainment—and it’s an emotional juggernaut for anyone who’s been around mental illness and addiction struggles, one that doesn’t hit a false note. The longer you sit with it, the more you’re struck by the audacity of the first-time feature filmmaker’s achievement. A Star Is Born was nominated for 8 Oscars, winning one for Best Song (“Shallow”).
3. Flight (2012)
A titanic turn by Denzel Washington and gripping, ambitious direction from Robert Zemeckis drive this viscerally affecting dramatic thriller. Washington plays Whip Whitaker, an alcoholic airline pilot who’s investigated following a near-disaster in the sky. The ending of Flight ties things up in too neat of a bow. It would have been more effective to cut immediately after Whip starts telling the truth, in court. Other than that, this is a virtually perfect piece of work, and a must-see. Flight received two Oscar nods, for Best Actor and John Gatins’ original screenplay.
4. Days of Wine and Roses (1962)
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.
5. Notorious (1946)
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 finest screenplays ever written, Ben Hecht’s script succeeds on multiple levels: it’s a chilling, enraged response to the horrors of the war that were only just sinking into the public conscious, and it’s a note-perfect psychological exploration of a romantic relationship that’s toxic in both directions.
6. Krisha (2016)
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, Krisha is a tiny movie that will knock you flat. At its heart, this gut-punch of an indie is about family.
7. Trainspotting (1996)
Based on a novel by Irvine Welsh, Danny Boyle’s iconic adrenaline rush, depicting a posse of heroin addicts in Edinburgh, is all at once 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 star Ewan McGregor, and the picture received a Best Adapted Screenplay Oscar nod. A sequel, T2: Trainspotting, followed in 2017.
8. Clean & Sober (1988)
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:
9. Drugstore Cowboy (1989)
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%. But the actual process of surrender and recovery is hardly ever the subject of films, maybe because it seems too depressing." Also worth watching: Van Sant’s relatively lighter addiction-themed Don’t Worry, He Won’t Get Far on Foot. Starring Jaoquin Phoenix and based on the life of artist John Callahan, it’s somewhat shaggy and meandering, but overall a low-key charmer about the power of forgiveness and strength in community.
10. Smashed (2012)
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 embarrassing incidents. Sometimes funny, and also sad, Smashed is a thoughtful exploration of the emotional resources required to do the work. Megan Mullally, Nick Offerman and Octavia Spencer co-star.
11. Traffic (2000)
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.
12. Half Nelson (2006)
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.
13. When a Man Loves a Woman (1994)
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.
14. Gia (1998)
HBO’s acclaimed biopic stars Angelina Jolie as American supermodel Gia Carangi, who became addicted to heroin, and died of AIDS-related illness at the age of 26. Gia co-stars Faye Dunaway and Mila Kunis appears, playing Carangi at age 11.
15. 28 Days (2000)
Directed by Betty Thomas, this drama stars Sandra Bullock as a newspaper columnist who enters treatment after ruining her sister’s wedding in spectacularly disastrous fashion. 28 Days could cut deeper for sure, but the performances are quite good, and the film is so entertaining and accessible that it’s become a staple for counselors and patients alike. Viggo Mortensen, Dominic West, Elizabeth Perkins and Steve Buscemi round out the supporting cast.
16. Requiem for a Dream (2000)
Ellen Burstyn received an Oscar nomination for her role in Darren Aronofsky’s highly stylized psychological chiller about four Coney Island residents who succumb to the horrors of drug addiction. Requiem for a Dream hammers where subtlety and nuance would have been preferable, but goodness knows it leaves a mark, and Burstyn is flat-out unforgettable.
17. Rachel Getting Married (2008)
Oscar winner Jonathan Demme’s acclaimed drama stars Anne Hathaway as Kym, who’s treated as the black sheep when she checks out of rehab for a few days to attend her sister’s wedding back home. Many critics called this Demme’s finest film since The Silence of the Lambs, and Hathaway received her first Academy Award nod, for Best Actress.
18. Sid & Nancy (1986)
Alex Cox’s punk-rock biopic was a disappointment at the box office, but critics hailed it, and its reputation has grown over time. Gary Oldman stars as Sex Pistols bassist Sid Vicious; Chloe Webb plays his girlfriend Nancy Spungen. In 2003, Rolling Stone named Sid & Nancy the third-best rock movie of all time.
19. Uncut Gems (2019)
Adam Sandler was, frankly, robbed of an Academy Award nomination for this. The oft-critically-maligned megastar delivers his best performance to date, as towering presence Howard Ratner, in Ben Safdie and Josh Safdie’s riveting crime caper about a compulsive gambler who puts everything on the bet of a lifetime. Idina Menzel delivers a killer supporting turn as Howard’s long-suffering wife. Masterful Uncut Gems is so suspenseful and high-stakes it might give you a nervous breakdown; it is essentially a two hours-plus anxiety attack. At its heart, this is a picture about an addiction; Howard cannot, will not stop until he’s ruined everyone’s lives, and until he is stopped. The hat trick of Sandler’s performance is making this disaster of a man just barely sympathetic enough to make the story register as great tragedy.
20. The Hustler (1961)
There are two villains in Robert Rossen’s iconic sports drama. One is George C. Scott’s greedy gambler Bert Gordon, who sees dollar signs and not much more when he meets Paul Newman’s talented pool hustler “Fast Eddie.” The other is alcoholism. The disease has a tight grip on Eddie’s girlfriend Sarah (Piper Laurie), and The Hustler is a powerful look at codependency whose psychology holds up today. The American Film Institute named The Hustler the sixth greatest sports film of all time; it was followed by an inferior sequel, The Color of Money, in 1986.
21. Rocketman (2019)
The framing device of Rocketman is a 12-step meeting. What could have come off as hokey is just right, launching us straight into the emotional core of the drama. This is a story of redemption and forgiveness, perseverance and hope. Bohemian Rhapsody was overcommitted to recreating some things on a technical level. Rocketman really, truly feels the music. Dexter Fletcher‘s Elton John biopic is a splashy old-fashioned musical, a juicy showbiz melodrama, and one of the most affecting movies about sobering up in recent memory. It all wouldn’t work without Taron Egerton, who is now one of the most versatile and well-liked young actors working in popular films. Rocketman can’t get bogged down by the clichés that commonly burden biopics, because–to be perfectly accurate here– it dances all over them. Fletcher knocked it out of the park, and he was rumored to be in the running to direct the upcoming Madonna biopic before The Queen of Pop stepped and said she was telling her own life story.
22. The Panic in Needle Park (1971)
Screenwriters Joan Didion and John Gregory Dunne adapted this gritty romantic drama from James Mills’ novel of the same name. Centered on a group of heroin addicts in Manhattan’s Sherman Square, The Panic in Needle Park marks the second film appearance of Al Pacino, his first lead role.
23. Doctor Sleep (2019)
The most underrated studio-released horror film of the past decade, Mike Flanagan’s rich, novelistic thriller is an adaptation of Stephen King’s book, serving as both a sequel to his novel The Shining and Stanley Kubrick’s iconic film. The visions of Kubrick and King were infamously opposing, so it’s miraculous that Flanagan—now cemented as one of our strongest genre directors—produced a film this cohesive and streamlined. Warner Bros. The 1980 picture saw unstable drunk Jack Torrance (Jack Nicholson) succumb to his demons, and the supernatural forces of an isolated Colorado hotel. In Doctor Sleep, his traumatized son Danny (a terrific Ewan McGregor), now an adult in the throes of addiction himself, seeks closure and redemption. Best enjoyed in Flanagan’s patient 181-minute director’s cut, Doctor Sleep weaves grisly supernatural terror, action thriller and family drama into a uniquely satisfying epic. The Shining disappointed at the box office 40 years ago. Thanks to a mismanaged release, Doctor Sleep was a financial disappointment out of the gate, too. It’s only a matter of time before critics and audiences alike reassess its considerable merits.
24. Ray (2004)
Jamie Foxx won a Best Actor Academy Award, Golden Globe, SAG Award, BAFTA and Critics’ Choice Award for his portrayal of R&B legend Ray Charles in Taylor Hackford’s musical biopic. Charles struggled with heroin addiction for nearly two decades, before successfully kicking the habit in the 1960s.
25. Shame (2011)
12 Years a Slave helmer Steve McQueen set the high bar for sex addiction on film in this searing, brutal drama starring Michael Fassbender and Carey Mulligan. Fassbender’s performance is a masterclass, an embodiment of a man who is spiritually decomposing. In hindsight, it’s shocking he didn’t receive an Oscar nod.
26. Phantom Thread (2017)
Workaholism is an anomaly among addictions. Because work is associated with so many good things and rewards, it’s an addiction that commonly gets a pass. But workaholism is not the same thing as working hard. The bottom line: it’s an all-consuming, unhealthy coping mechanism that can ruin lives. Paul Thomas Anderson’s Oscar winning period piece Phantom Thread is, unequivocally, the best, richest movie about workaholism of all time. This is a bizarre, brilliant film whose triumphs are layered. Daniel Day-Lewis stars as a grief-stricken, toxic fashion designer who meets his match in a beautiful waitress (Vicky Krieps).
27. Leaving Las Vegas (1995)
Alcoholic torture is the name of the game in Mike Figgis’ devastating account of a suicidal drunk who moves to Sin City to die after losing his family and his job. Nicolas Cage won an Oscar for Best Actor, and Elizabeth Shue received a Best Actress nod. Roger Ebert named Leaving Las Vegas the best film of 1995, and the eighth best film of the 1990s. He wrote: Review: Mandy is Nicolas Cage as His Very Best
28. Chandelier (2014)
This is a music video, but it’s way too important not to mention. With a hook of “1,2,3, drink” and staggering vocals, Sia’s Grammy-nominated pop tune from the perspective of a “party girl” is an electrifying account of the release and demoralization of active addiction. The music video showcases precocious and haunting interpretative dance by Maddie Ziegler (11 years old when this was filmed), with disturbed expressions, movement suggesting she’s pulled by an unseen force. This short-form has received universal acclaim, viewed over two billion times on YouTube. It can comfortably be called one of the best music video clips so far this century.
29. The Basketball Diaries (1995)
Based on Jim Carroll’s autobiographical novel, Scott Kalvert’s drama stars Leonardo DiCaprio as a high-school athlete who gets hooked on heroin. The drama is pretty conventional; the performance is something quite special, an early sign of things to come.
30. Ben Is Back (2018)
Peter Hedges’ drama stars son Lucas Hedges as an addicted teen who shows up at home unexpectedly for the holidays; Julia Roberts plays his mother. The plot of Ben Is Back is too convenient at times, contrived, but individual moments and truth bombs make it worth watching. The best part is Roberts, explosively great here as a nerve-fried mother who will do anything to save her son—and must face the inevitable truth that she cannot, that such things are not in her control. Roberts keeps us invested, even when the strings of the storytelling show. So many parents who’ve been through this struggle will find much truth in this ripper of a performance. Honorable Mentions: Matthew Porterfield’s splendid, understated drama Sollers Point (2018) (more about the social ravages of addiction and drug trade than the disease itself), Crazy Heart (2009) starring Jeff Bridges, Permanent Midnight (1998) with Ben Stiller, Keanu Reeves in A Scanner Darkly (2006), TV film My Name is Bill W. (1989) starring James Garner and James Woods, and Beautiful Boy (2018), an uneven, repetitive drama with strong, sympathetic turns by Steve Carell and Timothée Chalamet. If you or a loved one are struggling with mental health or substance abuse issues and need outside help, a great place to start is the website and National Helpline for SAMHSA. There is no reason for stigma or shame—and there is hope.
