Angelina Jolie to Al Pacino – 8 actors who have grippingly portrayed the horror of addiction on screen
Illegal drugs might too often be glorified by filmmakers, with decadent high rollers, flamboyant free spirits and fiendish, power-hungry gangsters among the most likely to imbibe a toke, line or hit on screen. But the very real devastation addiction can bring to everyday lives hasn’t been entirely ignored either – as these powerful portraits from the past 50 years of cinema prove, brought to life by heavyweight names from Al Pacino to Angelina Jolie, and Meg Ryan to Nicolas Cage.
The Panic in Needle Park (1971)
Soon before he became established as Hollywood’s archetypal angry/shouty police officer/mobster, Al Pacino made his film lead debut in this studied, brooding portrait of a heroin addict locked into a codependent relationship. Scenes are long and naturalistic, evoking a deep time-and-place intimacy without glamorising the lifestyle of an addict in the slightest. Nuanced and never off note, it’s a heartbreaking ride. Pacino himself suffered throughout much of his years with one of the most commonplace addictions of all – a lifelong smoker, as evidenced by the steady deepening of his trademark, ardent growl.
Christiane F. (1981)
Overshadowed by the appearance of and soundtrack by David Bowie, gritty German drama Christiane F. is a global cinema classic which has acquired deserved cult status in cinema circles. Based on the non-fiction account, We Children from Zoo Station, the movie zeroes in on the descent of 13-year-old Christiane Felscherinow (played by same-aged Natja Brunckhorst) into the murky depths of West Berlin’s late-70s drug counterculture. Experiments with clubbing and pills lead to a boyfriend, needles and heroin, and by 14 she is homeless and prostituting herself out of the infamous Bahnhof Zoo. Unforgettably harrowing.
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When a Man Loves a Woman (1994)
Meg Ryan earned praise for her portrayal of a loving mum and school counsellor with a drinking problem in this atypical Hollywood tear-jerker. An inebriated incident prompts an intervention from husband Michael, played by Andy García, leading to hospitalisation, and a fractured family dynamic which millions could empathise with. The final redemptive scene might leave you in tears.
Leaving Las Vegas (1995)
Nicolas Cage might rank among Tinseltown’s most hit-and-miss leading men, but this confessed tortured soul hit an early career high in his shattering portrayal of Ben Sanderson, the semi-autobiographical protagonist of John O’Brien’s novel. Having lost his job, family and friends to alcoholism, the Hollywood screenwriter takes his severance cheque to Las Vegas to, essentially, drown his sorrows until death. This cheery little number should not be confused with the hallucinogenic fireworks of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas – a very different portrait of Sin City substance abuse (loosely) based on Hunter S. Thompson’s gonzo memoirs and starring a typically trippy Johnny Depp.
Gia (1998)
Angelina Jolie has hinted at her own early-life struggles, telling 60 Minutes in 2011, “I went through heavy, darker times and I survived them”, experiences she might have mined in her portrayal of Gia Carangi, a biopic of America’s first openly gay supermodel – whose battles with heroin addiction ultimately led to her tragic death from Aids, aged 26. “I didn’t die young, so I’m very lucky. There are other artists and people who didn’t survive certain things,” Jolie reflected in the same interview.
Gia might be a “television movie” – made straight for HBO in the days before those three letters were a badge of honour – but it boasts an enviably artistic creative team, directed by Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Michael Cristofer, co-written by celebrated novelist Jay McInerney and with original music composed by jazz heavyweight Terence Blanchard.
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Requiem for a Dream (2000)
When I asked friends on social media to recommend compelling portraits of addiction, dozens weighed in and as many movies were named, but by far the most-oft mentioned response was Requiem for a Dream – a telling sign of the power of Darren Aronofsky’s incredibly bleak adaptation of Hubert Selby Jr’s novel of the same name. At the tragic crux is the parallel dependencies of heroin addict Harry (played unnervingly by Jared Leto) and his mother Sara, a widow hooked on bad television – and amphetamines prescribed by a dodgy doctor to aid weight loss. Deeply disturbing, in the words of one connection’s comment, “I couldn’t go near the fridge for days after seeing that film”.
Shame (2011)
Two years before he made era-defining American reckoning 12 Years a Slave, British director Steve McQueen turned his camera on a widely misunderstood issue, too often the subject of bawdy punchlines: shame deals starkly with sex addiction. Michael Fassbender plays a successful, desirable New York City executive who is incapable of building meaningful relationships with women because of a destructive addiction to prostitutes, pornography and self-pleasure. And yes, it’s as unpleasant to watch as it sounds.
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Beautiful Boy (2018)
Face of the future Timothée Chalamet stars as the troubled teen with a meth addiction at the heart of this mellow meditation, which centres on the relationship between son and emotionally unprepared father, David, played gracefully by former funnyman Steve Carell. The debut English feature from Belgian art house regular Felix van Groeningen, the studied authenticity rests on the source material of New York Times journalist David Sheff’s memoir Beautiful Boy: A Father’s Journey Through His Son’s Addiction.
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5 decades of cinema show the devastation that addiction can bring to everyday lives