Five to Watch - Movies About Drugs

I’ve watched the series “Narcos” last year on Netflix and I really liked it (and I’m into Pedro Pascal, main reason I started watching). The show centrals drugs. And I started about all the movies that are about drugs. And there are a lot! I decided to focus on the movies that you might not have seen, that are underrated or overlooked. Here are my five picks:
 

Dope (2015)
Three teenagers with a penchant for nineties hip-hop get stuck with a backpack full of drugs via a birthday party that got out of hand. Classic movie idea, but “Dope” is much more than just another American coming-of-age film in which sex, drugs and unattainable dream girls play a big role. Thanks to a by violent gangs dominated slum as a backdrop, a brilliant eclectic soundtrack and an arsenal of completely unique characters. The young protagonists are all fantastic.
 

Requiem for a Dream (2001)
Widowed and unorthodox mother Sara Goldfarb is firmly convinced that she will soon be invited to one of her favorite TV shows. She swallows amphetamines, then she can wear her red dress when the big night is there. Son Harry, like his friends, is also on drugs. Smart big-city story by Darren Aronofsky. It makes effective use of hypnotic imagery and music. The most depressing movie I have ever seen. When you think your life is bad, watch “Requiem for a Dream”. It also has one of the most gruesome scenes imaginable, I simply can’t watch it.
 

The Basketball Diaries (1995)
A very young Leonardo DiCaprio plays Jim Carroll. A student at the New York Saint Vitus College. He becomes a member of the basketball team. There he comes in contact with drugs and then becomes addicted to heroin, making his life go downhill.  
 

City of God (2002)
“City of God” is a film about poverty and violence, in which little boys have weapons, use drugs and die in the bishes. Yet it is not a melancholic tearjerker. It’s a drama, lusciously photographed and quickly edited. “City of God” is loosely based on the book by Paulo Lins, a man who himself lived in the slum in Rio de Janeiro.
 

A Scanner Darkly (2006)
In the not too distant future, three junkies live in a messy single-family home. One of them is an undercover cop, looking for the source of the new, devastating drug Substance D, while he himself slowly breaks down the stuff. Director Richard Linklater had the recordings of his actors redrawn by fifty illustrators using special software. This ‘interpolated rotoscope effect’ contributes to the alienating atmosphere of this film.
 

What's in a Movie Year - 2000

Taking a look at the year 2000, picking my 10 favorite movies from that year in random order.
 

High Fidelity
This film adaptation of Nick Hornby’s bestseller of the same name is not set in London but in Chicago. There Rob runs a record store, which is only visit by the true purists. The wandering thirty-something has an almost sickly record collection and consistently categorizes according to a top five, whether it’s music or women. When girlfriend Laura trades him in for another, Rob finds out there’s more to it than collecting vinyl. It’s a fun comedy, with one of my favorite movie characters ever played by John Cusack and some great supporting roles by Jack Black and Tim Robbins.
 

Requiem for a Dream
Widowed and unorthodox mother Sara Goldfarb is firmly convinced that she wull be invited to one of her favorite TV shows. She swallows amphetamines to lose weight, so she can wear het red dress when the big day comes. Son Harry, like his friends, is also on drugs. It’s a smart big-cuty story by Darren Aronofsky and it uses hypnotic imagery and music. A fantastic movie, with some disturbing scenes that makes it hard to watch. But a definite must-see.
 

Unbreakable
David Dunne is a security guard who realizes after an accident that he is never sick and never got hurt. He’s unbreakable. He meets the owner of a comic book store, who is the complete opposite: he has an extremely fragile body. Visually “Unbreakable” is very intriguing and the story is really strong. One of M. Night Shyamalan’s best film to date.
 

Snatch
A crime comedy in which the story of Franky Four Fingers is interwoven with storylines around Bullet Teeth Toney and the boxing Irish gypsy Mickey. Franky steals the diamonds where the American Avi and the Russian criminal Boris the Blade are looking for. Director Guy Ritchie is a fun film, in the style of his earlier succession “Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels”. It’s dazzling, funny and edgy. I especially love Brad Pitt as the boxer, with a crazy Irish accent.
 

O Brother, Where art Thou?
A magnificently played and photographed adaptation of Homer’s epic Odyssey, starring George Clooney as Everett Ulysses. At the end of the thirties he escapes from a chain gang with loser Delmar and hot head Pete. According to a blind prophet they will find a fortune, but not the fortune they are looking for. Chained together they head for the adventure and meet a cyclops, sirens and a devilish lawman. The film also has a beautiful soundtrack. One of the most underappreciated films by the Coen Brothers I believe.
 

Gladiator
Roman general Maximus defeats a northern barbarian army, but is then betrayed by Emperor Commodus. He is sold as a slave and then has to work as a gladiator. Although historically not accurate, “Gladiator” is a beautiful film with a great performance by Russel Crowe.
 

Cast Away
FedEx manager Chuck Noland ends up on an uninhabited island after a plane crash and spends years in solitude. Due to loneliness Chuck starts talking to a Volleyball, which he calls Wilson. Probably two thirds of this film contains constant music, which is highly unusual for a big Hollywood movie. Since it’s mainly Tom Hanks on screen, and only he can make us cry over a volleyball.
 

American Psycho
Director Mary Harron decided to adapt the controversial book “American Psycho” by Bret Easton Ellis. The book has excessive violence and although the film is also very violent, it stayed relatively mild compared to the novel. The film is about the white-collar serial killer Patrick Bateman, as a symbol of the cynical, greedy eighties. But the horrific violence is not explicitly shown. Christian Bale is fantastic in his role, one of his best performances.
 

Billy Elliot
A young boy in a deprived British neighborhood can’t box, be he can dance. It’s a form of expression not accepted here for men. The boy is forbidden to dance, but he perseveres anyway. Billy eventually succeeds and has a better relationship with the people around him. “Billy Elliot” shows a well-known formula, but fortunately a sympathetic one.  
 

Final Destination
Alex feels disaster is in the air, on the eve of a flight and school trip to Paris. Everywhere he looks, Alex sees and feels signs of something bad happening on the flight. When panicking on the actual plane, he and some of his classmates are taken of the flight. And soon after the plane takes off, it explodes. It sets the tone of a film that shows a lot can go wrong in life. Since they have cheated death, death is coming for them one by one. It’s started a series, but this is still the best. And it has some gruesome and original deaths in it.

 

Top 5 Thursday: Depressing Movies

Sometimes, when you’re feeling down and it feels like the end of the world, you need to watch a depressing movie. Just to see that there are worse things in the world, not to cheer you up. Mostly these are movies that you shouldn’t watch with your family or in a good mood. Here are the most depressing movies ever.

5. Precious

An unflinching portrayal of child abuse, as Gaboury Sidibe’s eponymous teen struggles with rape, domestic violence, illiteracy and pregnancy. It’s based on true events too, as if it wasn’t dispiriting enough …

 

 

4. The Mist

Frank Darabont’s creature-feature adaptation of a novella by Stephen King is a thoroughly enjoyable (if more than a little icky) horror romp that suddenly takes a turn for the mind-numbingly tragic come the final scene…

 

 

3. Leaving Las Vegas

You’re essentially using your Friday-night trip to the movies to watch a deeply unhappy man drink himself to death for two hours. Uplifting, it ain’t.

 

 

2. Million Dollar Baby

Hilary Swank’s tough-as-nails boxer ends up a paraplegic, burdened by a heartless family and reduced to biting through her own tongue in the hope of bleeding to death. Even Clint cries in this one.

 

 

1. Requiem for a Dream

Darren Aronofsky’s waking nightmare follows four lives ravaged by various forms of addiction. Electro-shock therapy, intravenous drug use, prostitution… it’s not exactly a laugh riot.

 

 

They Almost Made the Top 5: Black Swan, Blue Valentine, 21 Grams, The Wrestler

Top 5 Thursday: Cringe-worthy Movie Scene

We all know them, those scenes in movies that you just can’t watch. Because the repulse you, give you the chills or are just simply disgusting. Especially because you sometimes didn’t see it coming and are unexpected. Here is my list of cringe-worthy movie scenes. Don’t be afraid, I’m not sharing pictures.

5. Syriana

Torture is never fun to watch, but some films don’t make you watch the gruesome parts. Not “Syriana”. We got to squirm along with George Clooney as his CIA analyst gets his fingernail painstakingly removed with large pliers. Such a small body part to cause such agony.

 

 

4. American Histoy X

I’d never heard of ‘curbing’ until I saw “American History X”. When Edward Norton’s hate ideologue Derek Vineyard forces a black car thief to get down on the ground and place his open mouth on the sidewalk curb, teeth gratting, I got sick to my stomach. When Derek stomped on the back of the thief’s head, splittin his head like a melon, I whipped my own head around as if struck. I simply can’t watch this scene.

 

 

3. 127 Hours

The story of adventure junkie Aron Ralston was well publicized long before James Franco brought the tale to the big screen, but familiarity did little to quell the effect of the film’s gory amputation scene. And even if you were one of the steel-stomached moviegoers who didn’t pass out, bury you head in the shoulder of the person next to you, or lose your lunch during the scene, it’s likely that the image of the protagonist cutting away his own arm with the aid of a dull pocket knife will pop into you head the next time you’re deciding whether or not you want to tour some visually stunning canyons.

 

 

2. Misery

Nobody brings the crazy like Kathy Bates. When author Paul Sheldon veers off the road during a nasty snowstorm, his number one fan promises to nurse him back to health. That is, until she slams a sledgehammer into his ankles to make sure he doesn’t wander from her adoring gaze.

 

 

1. Requiem for a Dream

Darren Aronofsky’s drug-spiral odyssey is one cringe-worthy moment after another, but never more so than when Harry shoots heroin into the cavernous black hole of infection that is forming on his arm.

 

 

They Almost Made the Top 5: Black Swan, There’s Something About Mary, Reservoir Dogs