Drug movies

[christopher575]

Can anyone think of any drug movies where the characters' lives go to shit but then they manage to turn their lives around? 

I've read books like that (Different People, Tommy's Tale) but no movies come to mind.

Comments

[christopher575.livejournal.com]

I don't know why I haven't watched Rush already. I love ever movie I've ever seen with Jennifer Jason Leigh, except Skipped Parts, which was a steaming pile.

Salton Sea was awesome.

[scotty2naughty.livejournal.com]

GO?

[christopher575.livejournal.com]

I love that movie. But that is just kinda a wacky day-in-the-life sort of thing. I'm talking about where someone's whole life goes down the shitter but they end up making a recovery.

I need to watch Go again. It's been too long.

[vurumai.livejournal.com]

Is Trainspotting to obvious?

[christopher575.livejournal.com]

It's been so long since I've seen it, I couldn't say I remember it ending well.

[notlostonme.livejournal.com]

Sherry Baby is the only one I've seen that even remotely matches this, but it still ends kind of oddly.

[vurumai.livejournal.com]

Our hero rips his loser friends off for the drug money and rides off into the sunset.

[badrobot68.livejournal.com]

Yeah I was going to say the same thing. I just couldn't remember exactly how it ended. It left me feeling kind of sad.

[notlostonme.livejournal.com]

Me too. It was a tough movie for me to watch all around.

[christopher575.livejournal.com]

I keep meaning to watch that. Queuing now.

[badrobot68.livejournal.com]

I have never wanted for a character to pull her life together as much as I did in this movie. And I was left at the end feeling like she wasn't going to make it. :(

[notlostonme.livejournal.com]

Its really good, but also really gut wrenching. I was never sure whether I was on her side or not.

[christopher575.livejournal.com]

Not quite what I mean by turning one's life around. I mean a movie where they clean up, rejoin society, etc.

[notlostonme.livejournal.com]

I felt the same way and then she'd be rotten and I wasn't sure whether I liked her or not. And then I picked dealing with that as a profession. I think I am a sucker for this stuff.

[vurumai.livejournal.com]

Ever seen True Romance?

[christopher575.livejournal.com]

Nope. Is good?

[badrobot68.livejournal.com]

If I didn't love Maggie G so much, I probably couldn't have watched the whole movie.

[vurumai.livejournal.com]

Yup. Hookers, blow, guns, true love.

[vurumai.livejournal.com]

Kinda like Princess Bride only with more drugs

[seckzee.livejournal.com]

Blow? though the life doesnt really turn around..

[meejies.livejournal.com]

these are both a stretch, but... human traffic? the man with the golden arm?

[scearley.livejournal.com]

The one I think of most obviously is Basketball Diaries. The ones who survive anyway.

Clean and Sober. Though you could argue that the film starts after the 'go to shit' period, there are wobbles.
The Man with the Golden Arm A movie that makes you believe Frank Sinatra missed his calling and should have been an actor not a singer. The movie is pretty realistic, because he has trouble after getting clean. Classic "The book is better" film, and the author of the book (Nelson Algren) was so fucked over by Hollywood (in one week!) he wrote a book about it called Nonconformity.
And if you count "getting off scot-free for murdering your wife," Naked Lunch might qualify for this list.

[scearley.livejournal.com]

I think The Man with the Golden Arm is a tale of redemption, he cleans up in prison and then has to deal with his addiction thereafter. Not a Pollyanna-ish rosy salvation.

[meejies.livejournal.com]

yeah, he falls back into his addiction, but the ending implies he's going to clean up again. it's by no means a happy ending, though, i agree.

[poppychirpy.livejournal.com]

Trainspotting, Drugstore Cowboy, Permanent Midnight kinda?

[yieldsigns.livejournal.com]

I'd suggest Down to the Bone, but I'm not sure she gets it back together.

Hmm.

There's always the stellar Sandra Bullock vehicle 28 Days! How could you forget that one?

[doughynut.livejournal.com]

High Art

[christopher575.livejournal.com]

Oh you mean the one where Ally Sheedy cleans up and then does heroin one last time and dies?

[christopher575.livejournal.com]

I've always meant to see 28 Days but have never gotten around to it.

[doughynut.livejournal.com]

I don't remember her ever getting "clean". I remember her sitting in her living room, snorting heroin through the whole movie. She even decided to bring some on their little get-away trip. I was referring to the young intern who left her bf, started doing heroin, started dating Ally Sheedy, and then got clean by the end (or so I assumed).

[christopher575.livejournal.com]

Ah yes, she did get pretty wrapped up in it. Ally Sheedy's character had been a long time user and had finally stopped using, even turning it down on that trip. Her ex got her to use it one last time for old times' sake, and since she hadn't been doing it, she OD'd.

Good movie.

[doughynut.livejournal.com]

Yeah, a lot of that was vague to me (plus it had been a while since I've seen it).

Alley's first gf made me LOL. I love her as an actress, too.