Thursday Movie Picks: Movies about Addiction


Welcome to Thursday Movie Picks, a weekly series hosted by Wandering Through the Shelves where each Thursday you have to pick three films to match the week's topic.

This week we are dealing with addictions and therefore addicts. Whether it's alcohol, drugs, sex, gambling or food, we all have addictions. Even having a blog could be considered an addiction, right? And who knows that better than me? I started this blog as an experiment and now it's my drug. However, since a film about my life has yet to be made, I had to pick different types of addictions, and I pretty much went with the most classics. So here you go, one flick about sex addiction, one about drugs addiction, and one that has them all, drugs, sex and rock and roll. Except the last part which is replaced by alcohol.

Shame (2011)

Brandon is a successful New Yorker with pretty much a perfect life. Sure, he has a compulsive addiction to sex, but it's not a big deal. Until his little sister shows up. Then his life spirals out of control. Steve McQueen's second masterpiece is a brilliant character study, and Michael Fassbender gives such a devastating performance.

Half Nelson (2006)

This is the story of an high school teacher addicted to drugs that forms an unlikely friendship with one of his students precisely because of the addiction. Ryan Fleck's first film is an another brilliant character study. It's a story of everyday life and how the addiction affect the addict's choices and life. And this one also features fantastic performances from its leads, Ryan Gosling and Shareeka Epps.

Rachel Getting Married (2008)

Kym returns how for the wedding of her sister but she also brings with her a long story of personal crisis and addictions. And of course she makes a mess. This is a tough one. The first time I wasn't able to finish it, but the second time I loved it. It gets quite depressing, but Jonathan Demme manages to balance the euphoria for the wedding and the melancholy of the protagonist beautifully. Also Anne Hathaway gives a brilliant performance - my favourite of hers. So it's definitely worth a watch. 

14 comments :

  1. GREAT call on Rachel Getting Married, one of my favorite movies. I've already picked it for a previous week, but the fact that it still didn't cross my mind at all for this week is kind of shocking to me. Hathaway should have won the Oscar.

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    1. It happens, sometimes we can't see what's right in front of us.

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  2. I love all three of these movies! Great choices!

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  3. Great choices! These are all fantastic films.

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  4. Aw Shame and Half Nelson have been waiting in my Netflix queue for an age! I'm not a Hathaway fan so will be skipping that film.

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    1. Believe me, Rachel Getting Married is so good you won't even mind Anne Hathaway. And she's so good in that role.

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  5. Rachel getting Married was the decades biggest surprise for me. It goes to show that the smallest of films can sometimes have the biggest of impacts. And much of it is thanks to Anne Hathaway, who delivers the performance of a lifetime.

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    1. It's such a shame a lot of people don't watch little gems like this one.

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  6. Rachel Getting Married is a brilliant movie. Wholly unique and powerful. I love Anne Hathaway's work there. She plays a manic addict to perfection. Half Nelson is a good one too, though I haven't seen it in a long while. Shame is a tough watch but a good one. Fassbender is boss in that role. Great picks!

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    1. Thanks! That was (and still is) Hathaway's best performance in my opinion.

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  7. Forgot to mention Shame.. really ashamed right about now. But Rachel Getting Married is a good one too, so I'm like, man, the addiction theme really does have a lot of great movies!

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    1. I had a very hard time that week because there were too many great movies to choose from.

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  8. Shame is the only one I haven't seen. I like Half Nelson too, definitely something I want to rewatch.

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    1. Shame is hard to watch, but it's definitely worth it.

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