The 10 Best Movies About Addiction And Recovery

10 Best Movies About Addiction and Recovery

For the most part, we go to the movies for entertainment. We use the movie theater as our getaway from the daily stress and strife. Sometimes, though, we run into movies that inspire us, ones that motivate and encourage us through the stories they tell. Films about addiction and recovery can be part of that inspiration as they tell their powerful and uplifting story.

We have found 10 of the best movies about addiction and recovery. They take on subjects such as substance abuse and alcoholism while chronicling the abuser’s journey on their path to recovery. Not all of these stories have happy endings, but they can be just as effective.

Half Nelson (2006)

Ryan Gosling stars in Half Nelson, a story about a drug-addicted junior high school teacher whose drug habit leads him to an unlikely friendship with one of his students.

Dan Dunne (Gosling) teaches and coaches girl’s basketball at an inner-city school in Brooklyn and has a great connection with his students. Outside of school, Dan’s life is a mess. He has very little relationship with his family, he doesn’t have a woman in his life, and he has a terrible drug habit. One day after basketball practice, Dan thinks he is alone in the locker room when he is caught smoking crack by one of his students/players.

Young Drey (Shareeka Epps) has her own family issues – no father, an always working mother, and an incarcerated brother – so when she catches Dan red-handed, it turns out to be fortuitous for the both of them. They both turn to each other as their friendship develops as a way to find their way through their troubles.

When a Man Loves a Woman (1994)

On the outside, they have a relationship that appears to be perfect. But on the inside, it is the farthest thing from perfect. Meg Ryan and Andy Garcia star in When a Man Loves a Woman, a film that depicts the horrors of alcoholism.

Ryan is Alice Green, a mother of two and a school counselor, whose alcoholism is put on immediate display. Garcia is her husband Michael, an airline pilot who is often times on the road. Alice is the reckless sort of drunk and after a bad spell, she finds herself in the hospital after falling through the shower door.

As Alice tries to recover through rehab, Michael has to spend more time at home, which is tough for an airline pilot. Things get even more complicated when Alice returns home a changed woman, something neither was prepared for. When a Man Loves a Woman eventually is a story of addiction, recovery, change, and redemption.

28 Days (2000)

Sandra Bullock stars as Gwen Cummings, a newspaper columnist who doesn’t even try to hide her alcoholism. After arriving late to her sister’s wedding with her alcoholic boyfriend Jasper, Gwen’s bender leads her to knock over her sister’s wedding cake, steal a limo, then crash said limo. She is given two choices – jail time or rehab for 28 days.

While in rehab, Gwen meets a number of other patients with just as many issues as she has. Some are drug addicts, alcoholics, and even sex addicts, but all are there with the same common goal – to kick their addiction.

28 Days offers a candid look at how some people are ready to do the hard work to kick a habit while others continue to give into the habit. Along with Bullock, the film stars Viggo Mortensen, Dominic West, Diane Ladd, Elizabeth Perkins, and Steve Buscemi.

Smashed (2012)

Mary Elizabeth Winstead and Aaron Paul are Kate and Charlie, a married couple who have one terrible thing in common – they are both alcoholics. When Kate experiences a few embarrassing incidents because of her drinking, she finally decides it is time to clean up her act.

Smashed shows just how far an alcoholic can take things before choosing to get better. In Kate’s case, her drinking causes her to vomit in front of her students, she leaves a party (heavily drunk) only to meet up with a woman looking for a ride and the two get high on crack, and finally, Kate enters a liquor store to buy wine only to be turned down by the cashier, which prompts her to urinate on the floor because the bathroom door is locked.

Kate finally turns to a co-worker and AA for help, but is it too little, too late?

Leaving Las Vegas (1995)

Leaving Las Vegas is a tragic story of one man who refuses to acknowledge his trouble and also refuses to seek help. Nicolas Cage brought home a Golden Globe and Academy Award for Best Actor for his portrayal of Ben Sanderson, an alcoholic Hollywood screenwriter who had it all but lost it all because of his drinking.

Feeling he now has nothing to live for, Ben heads to Las Vegas with a sizeable amount of money and the intention of drinking himself to death. Ben is decidedly drunk as he drives his car down the Vegas Strip, almost running over Sera (Elisabeth Shue). Sera is a prostitute and when Ben offers her $500, she accepts, though they don’t have sex. Instead, they develop a friendship.

Ben, though, is on a mission. No matter how much Sera wants to help him or to have him go find help for his drinking, Ben won’t listen.

Rachel Getting Married (2008)

Anne Hathaway received an Oscar nomination for her performance as Kym Buchman, a young woman who has found herself in and out of rehab for the past decade. Kym is released from rehab for a few days to return home for her sister’s wedding and upon her arrival, she struggles as she is considered the black sheep of the family.

Rachel Getting Married offers a good look at substance abuse and how even family members lose trust. Although Kym has every intention of making good with her family, especially her sister, they are less forgiving of her self-destructive tendencies. 10 years in rehab is a long time and they (her family) feel her abuse will never end.

Clean and Sober (1988)

Michael Keaton stars as Daryl Poynter, a real estate agent who is struggling with a cocaine habit. Clean and Sober marked the first time that Keaton took on a dramatic role as prior to this film, he had only starred in comedies.

This excellent film asks the question, when does an addict take responsibility for their actions? For Daryl, his actions – embezzlement, cocaine, and the death of a woman – lead him to rehab, where he sees it as more of a hideout than a place to get better. Morgan Freeman stars as his tough drug counselor who tries to give Daryl the help he needs. It is when another death occurs that Daryl finally has to answer the question of responsibility.

Requiem for a Dream (2000)

Requiem for a Dream is a Darren Aronofsky film starring Jennifer Connelly, Jared Leto, Ellen Burstyn, and Marlon Wayans in one of the most graphic looks at what drug abuse can do. The story follows Sara Goldfarb (Burstyn) who lives alone while her son Harry (Leto) and his girlfriend Marion (Connelly) are heroin addicts who plan on selling the drug to make enough money to open their own clothing store. Tyrone (Wayans) is a friend who also has a drug habit but is also involved with some very bad people.

Things go from depressing to downright brutal when Sara gets a phone call that she will be appearing on her favorite daytime game show and she begins to take prescribed amphetamines to lose weight. As she starts to spiral in her addiction, Harry and Marion’s drug abuse gets worse and worse while Tyrone and Harry, because of their drug use, find themselves in jail.

Harry’s abuse ends up being so bad that he develops gangrene in one arm, forcing it to be amputated at the elbow. Sara’s abuse causes her to end up in a catatonic state, while Tyrone, still in prison, experiences the horrors of prison abuse. Marion turns to sex to get the fix she needs. One thing is for sure, this is not a happy ending.

Trainspotting (1996)

Trainspotting is a Danny Boyle-directed film starring Ewan McGregor, Johnny Lee Miller, Robert Carlyle, and Ewen Bremner as friends who live in the squalor and poverty of Edinburgh, England, and who are also heroin addicts.

The film follows Mark Renton (McGregor) as he tries to distance himself from drugs and his habit by weaning himself off of his dangerous lifestyle. One poor decision – sex with an underaged female – puts him right back in harm’s way as he returns to his life of addiction.

This film shows just how tough it can be to kick a brutal drug habit if you don’t have the proper surroundings or willpower.

The Basketball Diaries (1995)

Leonardo DiCaprio stars as Jim Carroll based on his own autobiography which chronicled his life as a teenager when he was a promising high school basketball player who developed a heroin addiction. On top of being a decent basketball player, Carroll was also a promising writer in high school.

Things begin to go bad for Jim when his best friend Bobby sadly dies from leukemia. After the funeral, Jim and his friends head to the basketball court to reminisce about their friend. Jim begins to use heroin.

The drug use is brutal for Jim and his friends and in every attempt to get Jim straight, he always relapses. Finding himself on the street and needing a fix, Jim resorts to prostituting himself in a public restroom. Things go from terrible to horrible for Jim when he returns to his mother’s apartment only for her to call the police and have him arrested. Jim uses his six months at Riker’s Island to get himself fully clean and sober, finally being able to turn his life around.