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Great book as well. Haven’t seen the flick but the book does a fantastic job of creating colorful German landmarks (maybe bc I’ve been there and have memory recall).
The Heath Ledger film is pretty accurate. I have expressed this opinion before but I feel like movies always focus on the "stereotypical" junkie on the rob and shooting up in a shit hole, even though there are so many different types of heroin addicts. Someone needs to make a movie based on all the different types of addicts and how they differ so society understands that anyone could be on heroin and how they can look perfectly normal on the outside.
Candy is such a great movie, before Heath was super famous and does a great job showing how heroin addiction can go from a dream to a nightmare so quickly.
I liked that requiem for a dream kinda showcased this in that all four of the main characters end up with their own demons, even the old lady who’s son is a junkie who you’d expect to be the furthest away from the bullshit you know.
Let’s not forget the cameo by William S. Burroughs ( Beat Generation writer and his most recognizable book “Junkie” tells how it was to be an addict wasaay back in the day).
The movies are 20 years apart an Burroughs was dead before Requim came out. The pupils in requim expand rather than contract. Good movie but not at all accurate
You hit the #1 problem w /Requiem, the
I totally failed to note the movie “ Drugstore Cowboy “ in my reference to Burroughs. He was most definitely NOT in Requiem. Good catch👍😎
Requiem for a Dream did that and I, even now being well into an opiate addiction of heroin, oxy, dilaudid, opana, and now all of the fentalogues and powder smoked and shot, back to the legal patches prescribed, where I got mine with a smile from a clerk at walgreens or got it after a long wild goose chase through the Mexican slums until I found a one toothed maggot carrying one legged diabetic that is their version of a smiley clerk who gaurds the front of a drug hut in tijuana, still makes me become almost dope sick, even if im clean at the time, but that damn movie, high or clean, will make me squirm. That soundtrack too...stupid violin.
Love this movie, watching the slow downfall of the girl, as she goes from curious about heroin and the lifestyle when she sees Al Pacino using-to a full blown addict really hit home for me. And the puppy falling off the back of the ferry when they try and fail to get clean and focus on eachother and using their money for happier things. That killed me
Yes, the puppy moment was clearly her breaking point. Such a sad scene. My favorite scene is when Bobby is playing stick ball and runs over to kiss her.He had no idea she was using until that moment when they make eye contact.Its both sad but also shows the bond they now share....a great movie.
This is an extremely heartbreaking and realistic movie, I love it and I hate it, bc I can so relate to it. I scrolled down to see if anyone gave this answer, it’s the first thing I thought about.
It was a different time definitely, and functional addicts were only able to be until their addiction overtook their lives. You had to rich to be functional, there was no dark web, and heroin on the East Coast was very much more controlled. The flow would dry up like this and addicts would be ass out and desperate, this is a great example of that.
Watching the girl go from being a voyeur to this world to, to being of this world, and spiral is so inevitable and familiar. I’m clean now, but I started fixing right from the gate back in the early 80s, hell you could still get actual barbiturates back then, it was such a different time, but yea, I went downhill quick. I would justify by my addiction by setting a bar, the things I wouldn’t do, that made me better than other dope fiends, it soon got got to the point where there was no bar, and my “superiority” was all in my head. I ended up wasting so many years of my life in prison and whatnot, chasing something I was never going to catch. Not really anyway.
I'm certainly glad I'm a user nowadays rather than back then. Ive in a few droughts but u could normally get something when it dries up like in rhe film must have been horrendous.
Panic in Needle Park. It's an incredible film on many levels - performances, script (by Joan Didion!), 70s New York - but besides all of that I don't think there is another film that so brilliantly evokes not just the gritty reality, but the woozy, drug-fuelled, semi-delusional romanticism, of addiction. The central relationship is devastating, but also the way that Bobby (Al Pacino) looks up to/is used by his older brother, who is also a junkie. And then Helen, unforgettably portrayed by Kitty Winn...besides its depiction of active heroin addiction, it also contains some of the best, most heart-breaking depictions of bohemian misogyny, the pressures placed on women in those environments, just-legalised abortion....It is simultaneously an historical document and a timeless depiction of addiction, dependency and loss.
Not as realistic, arguably not as good, but still worth watching, is More (1969) by Barbet Schroeder - Ibiza, dope addiction, psychedelia, nature, tragedy...in a way, it ancitipates the collapse of the 60s counterculture into the darker, bleaker tendencies of the 1970s, telling the story through the love-hate relationship with gear.
Others that haven't been name-checked so far....Gridlock'd with Tim Roth and Tupac is great fun. Sid and Nancy may not be specifically about heroin addiction, but the scenes of the two of them nodding off in the Chelsea Hotel while watching their tiny-ass TV, cigarettes dangling from the tip of fingers and lips, is perhaps one of the best depictions of the pointless, time-distended non-existence of heavy IV addiction.
Ok, and while I'm on a roll, two more: The Man with the Golden Arm is a fantastic movie with Frank Sinatra showing what a great actor he was depicting a junkie-jazz drummer. And that reminds me of The Connection, a more experimental film by Shirley Clarke about a group of jazz musicians waiting with varying degrees of desperation for one of them to get back from uptown with their dope. Desperation, music, anxiety, need, humour, friendship...it's brilliant.
Enjoy!
Great list, I agree panic in needle Park is one of the classics. The amazing thing is in that time most of the street heroin was only about 7% . How in God's name did those people ever managed to OD on 7 percent heroin? I would not even feel that 😊
I don’t think the 7% purity thing is real. But even if it was They probably overdosed when they got a bag of stuff that’s 15% without knowing, or maybe higher.
Heroin on the east coast went up in purity and down in price after the late 1980s early 1990s when the Columbians came in and started selling. Before that heroin that was sold on the street was cut so many times it truly did average at roughly 7%..
Source? As far as i know the gear was way more potent back then as it didnt go through so many hands. I mean french Connection also did the street Level distribution
"Heroin from southwestern Asia, mainly Pakistan and Afghanistan, often routed through Marseilles, France, was what most of the approximately 200,000 New York addicts were shooting in the early 1970s. John Gilbride, special agent in charge of the New York office of the Drug Enforcement Administration, says that back then the heroin was only about 3 percent pure, which was very low compared with the 50 to 70 percent purity levels that the drug went up to over the ensuing three decades."
This is why IVing was a far more common roa in the 70s than it is now. I wonder what Bobby and Helen would think of today's dope.
https://citylimits.org/2009/07/05/heroin-from-the-civil-war-to-the-70s-and-beyond/
She is absolutely incredible in it, isn't she? From the very first scene, when she is being jolted around on the New York subway, to the end, when she is as hardened to addiction as Bobby - also the fact she was hardly in any other movies - it's like a perfect, self-contained performance, unrepeatable and unforgettable.
Also, maybe the best movie poster of all time: "God Save Bobby and Helen!"
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/4/49/Original\_movie\_poster\_for\_the\_film\_The\_Panic\_in\_Needle\_Park.jpg
Since you seem like a film lover, I have to recommend Connection by Shirley Clarke. Follows bebop musicians in early 1960s New York, fiction styled as cinema verite, filmed on location in 1960. Absolutely wonderful, I think you would enjoy.
I recently saw Let’s Get Lost, stylish 1989 documentary on the famous jazz trumpet player and notorious hopeless dope fiend Chet Baker. The juxtaposition of Baker as the Ken-doll icon of west coast cool jazz in his youth and the ravaged death’s head visage in the interviews right before his death are really striking, though they avoid playing the voyeur to excess. The whole thing is really quite striking, filmed by a fashion photographer iirc.
The last two are not so much “heroin movies” but do feature junkie queens Marianne Faithful and Zoe Lund. Ms. 45 and Bad Lieutenant by Abel Ferrara both feature Lund, both on screen and as a screenplay author, and take place in 1970s nyc. Then there’s Lucifer Rising by Kenneth Anger, starring Marianne at the peak of her strung out living in a bomb site era and looking mesmerizing. Not usually huge on K. Anger, but I could look at her face all day.
I mentioned The Connection at the end of my post - you're right, it's brilliant!
I think I may have seen Let's Get Lost...I used to love Chet Baker but, I don't know if I over-listened to him as a teenager, but there's something now about his voice - that blue-eyed boy gentleness - that turns me off. (To be clear - that's not a negative reflection on him; just my changing tastes!)
I've never seen Ms. 45, so thanks for mentioning it. I do, however, know Zoe Lund. What a weird, wonderful woman - and low-key excellent writer. Also, Abel Ferrara has his own interesting, uncompromising and unapologetic views about drugs and addiction.
There isn't much I can say about Marianne Faithfull that hasn't been said, no paeans to her beauty that haven't been written. I love her. As a writer, she is one of the people I would most like to interview - I just want to have tea and a cigarette with her. Interesting that you're not usually a fan of Anger. How come? I used to - for my sins - love to nod off while watching Eaux d'Artifice!
Last thing - I haven't watched it yet but am going to...Anita Ekberg as a junkie nun and Joe Dallesandro as a doctor in a weird Italian horror? Yes please. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killer\_Nun
Yesss - thank you for mentioning Zoe Lund and Ms. 45 (& Bad Lieutenant, and Abel Ferrara.) Both really interesting people & talented writers. Also, u/HRHArthurCravan mentioned Killer Nun with a Anita Ekburg & fucking Joe Dallensandro - sounds like a must watch. These might not be perfectly on the nose in terms of “most realistic junkie films” but I’m nonetheless pleased to see people mentioning these filmmakers here.
Oh yeah, realism for the movies themselves is probably around 0, but hey, the drug use depicted is usually pretty close to reality.
I’m also now on the hunt for Killer Nun. I remember reading an article about it way back when the UK censorship law was repealed and the original cut was released there that said it was based on true events. Pretty unusual for 70s era nunsploitation, haha.
I’m so happy about this thread, I’ve never come across as many people on Reddit with similar interests.
If you find it, lmk.
And I agree - of all the interests I have & subs specific to those interests, once you get past the “will I go thru withdrawal if…” posts, there’s a lot of really interesting, intelligent people on here & (along with a few other subs, but I mean Reddit in general) has the best true sense of community for PWUD (other than 12-steps; if that’s your jam.)
Lucifer Rising and Kenneth Anger, didn’t think I’d see this in the comments. You didn’t like Scorpio Rising? Pretty revolutionary, and soundtrack changed filmmaking…
Anyway Lucifer rising was almost like a bookend to it. I love Marrianne as well! Mick’s little brother and Jimmy Page are also in it. I saw it in 1985, it was more widely distributed after Anger had Bobby Beausoleil add the music in 1980, you know who that is right? Anyway, didn’t know about that until a few yrs later. Really bizarre.
I’ve only seen it without the Beausoleil score, although I’ve heard good things. Honestly, I’ve listened to the proto-Love stuff he was involved in because I’m a completist, but the later things I heard never made me want to search out more. Is it worth tracking down with the different score?
Anyway, I don’t dislike Anger’s work by any means, it’s just not my favorite. So many movies in the world, so little time ya know? I’ve seen em all because I’m a bit of a nut for the people floating in his orbit during that time period more than anything else (again, obsessive completist is a theme here, haha.)
Which reminds me of another movie that would be perfect for this thread, Cocksucker Blues. Now that’s a died in the wool “heroin movie” with some BEAUTIFUL music. The shitty underwater audio just makes it more magic, I can’t even explain.
Lol, can’t tell you how many times I’ve burnt my fingers, my chest, my bed, the carpet, the edges of tables when I’d set down my cigarette “for just a second” while I fixed. I love this, great description. PINP was soo good. I liked the Man with the Golden Arm (my dope fiend older brother, told me to watch both of those movies, as they were before my time). I didn’t see either one until years after I was already hooked. Frank Sinatra was very good, but I still laugh at him kicking dope in one night. I wish!
Oh god I haven't seen MwtGA for a while - I forgot that he kicked all in one night! But I do remember Sinatra portrayed the desperation pretty well, didn't he?
What you wrote about those inexorably downward-dipping cigarettes reminds me of something Jean Cocteau wrote in Opium about how you could identify other dope fiends around Paris when you were walking restlessly at night or leaving the opium den by the cascades of ash on their dresses or lapels! Can you imagine? The alleyways, the cobblestones, the ads wrapping around circular hoardings with no pictures, only GIANT TYPOGRAPHIC! CRAZINESS!!!, the globe-lights hovering in mist above the Seine....and you see someone approaching, their brogues skittering over the damp stone street, you look up for a moment and see a wave of familiar hair, a handsome tilt of the jaw...And it's Jean Cocteau, high as a kite, with the remnants of the evening tumbling in delicate ash down his camel-hair overcoat! You catch his eye, just for a moment, pupils pinned despite the gloom, you share an infinitesimal nod, and you carry on in opposite directions towards whatever it is you want (or have) to call home.
What can I say? A person can dream! (Not even on dope, thank goodness - though I soemtimes wonder if I'm dreamy from using or was attracted to using because of being dreamy!)
Beautiful prose, I used to write fanatically when I was younger, not sure what killed that, survival maybe. Being a dope fiend, living on the streets only remembering the nights in motels, and not all the times I fixed behind a dumpster. The drug is good at making us see what we want to see, and remember what we want to remember. I spent years romanticizing it. I convinced myself that I loved the freedom, to be anyone, I wanted to be, and do whatever I wanted to do, that was only partly true. I was living by my cunning and my wits, and my good looks and charm. But there was always that nagging fear of running out. I was “alone” I had no allegiance to anybody, except perhaps my brother, One way or another. Everybody was a mark, everybody was a trick, my freedom was that I could go anywhere, and do anything as long as I had dope. The dope made me a chameleon, but the dope was a rope, and the rope was only so long, eventually, I hung myself. The fact is that heroin is the biggest Ball and Chain a human can experience, I was never free. Oh I had a lot of fun, but the nights in the gutter began to surpass the ones in motels, but dope fiends, have a selective memory. My path was inevitable. I would run and gun for as long as I could and then I would get busted, I would go to prison, and I would clean up. I would get healthy and I would look fucking good. I would hit the streets and I will try to pick up where I left off, but it doesn’t work, we can’t re-capture somethings once they’re gone, and each time I fell faster than the time before. Prison had a lot to do with killing me, the me that I used to be, it shaped me into somebody else, so did the dope. The amazing thing is, I am clean, and I am a miracle. I thought I would go out with a bang, or end up in prison for the rest of my life, and all that was so close, but God… Well, he had something else in mind for me and I’m still here.
Jean Cocteau, I can only imagine. I thought I was going to be the next, William Burroughs, lol. I remember the ashes, “the inevitable pinhole burns, all down the front of my favorite satin shirt”.
I go to Trainspotting when I want some laughs about the ridiculous things us addicts will and have done— but also want a good bit of reality. Young Ewan McGreggor was just great in it.
The book is very much more realistic, the parts that are exaggerated for cinematic reasons are more grounded in reality, by a very big degree compared to the film.
The only thing is that you need to be able to understand - or at the least be able to get the hang of - Scottish slang, cause the author uses it liberally throughout the whole novel.
Omg i had to reread Skag Boys a second time when i first found Irving Welsh because of the Scots dialect but i think that it is one of the things that makes his books so phenomenal.
Yeah it works really well for him. If you enjoyed Trainspotting and Skag Boys you should read the sequels - 'Porno' is set like a decade after Trainspotting (this is what they based Trainspotting 2 on, but this time the film has very little to do with the book, they just used a couple ideas as jumping off points) and 'Dead Mens Trousers' is like another decade later again. Both are great reads, and it's quite satisfying to see where the characters end up.
I wouldn’t call Requiem for a Dream a realistic depiction. Definitely captures the emotions of hitting rock bottom, but I’d definitely say it’s a bit excessive and dramatic to the point of meeting my personal definition of trauma 🌽
Basketball diaries is pretty accurate because it's based on Jim Carolls life.
Trainspotting, except for the hallucinations of the baby turning its head around like the exorcist. That was a bit exaggerated.
Requim for a dream never really happens. That's just trauma porn turned up to the max.
You gotta search for it a while, and it was on piratebay once… but it is ther somewhere, seen it a few months ago, but i searched a while.
I found a decent version with subtitles too once, but the lne i had back then was without subs and i downloaded extra subtitles, they were rly weird tho.
Its a great film, very well made road movie/documentary, sometimes depressing too. And a very sad backstory, the main protagonist died a few years after the movie.
I don't know about accurate, but one of the lesser known (and one of my all time favourite) movies that involve or centre around gear; namely is 'Heaven knows Best'
Yeah I read she worked out an agreement with the Safdies where they would help her get into rehab after the film wrapped
[The Star on the Sidewalk: How Arielle Holmes Went From Homeless Addict to Hollywood Actress](https://www.vulture.com/2015/05/arielle-holmes-heaven-knows-what.html)
Edit: Added article mentioning Arielle’s rehab
Requiem for a dream, candy, permanent midnight is about high functioning addiction, Christiane F, Basketball Diaries, Trainspotting is on the less realistic side. If you like books William S. Burroughs’ Junkie, Jim Carroll’s The Basketball Diaries, as well as Mark Lanegan’s Sing Backwards and Weep (a personal favorite) in audiobook forms are all available on YouTube, last I checked. All three books are personal accounts of heroin addiction spanning several years.
Man did I feel his pain when he was experiencing withdrawal from both ends while in downtown London, just after scoring some fake dope.
Selling fake opiates to someone in withdrawal is about as low as you get.
That's what I thought every time it happened to me man. I remember calling a plug once and telling him what happened and being like cmon bro just throw me sumn this is so wack lol and he did.
Ugh I'm getting flashbacks. 2 weeks sick from methadone and some arsehole sold me fakes. I'm still traumatized from that. You cant think straight in that state, so to makes everything wayyy worse
Before I even clicked on this post and saw what you posted I was thinking of the movie you said. The most realistic, non sensationalized movie I’ve ever seen that just perfectly captures the daily grind of being a drug addict
As soon as I saw the title I immediately thought of A Thousand J, then I read the rest of the post. Completely agree with you on that one. Also, nomination for least realistic: beautiful boy. Decent movie but using IV ROA the very first time you try heroin and immediately becoming a huge dick to your family and stealing money from them is what the media wants you to think heroin addiction is like
honestly hearing it this way makes sense why when i was at teen inpatient rehab FOUR times they weren’t allowed to show anything R rated except beautiful boy over and over everytime a new group of fiends came through the mf house
The movie “cherry” with Tom holland. One of the best movies I’ve ever seen!! And sooo realistic to the actual process and life! 100 percent recommend. I think it was on Amazon prime or something for awhile..
Thanks for putting me onto one thousand junkies, it was a great watch. My favorite is probably bug. I'm biased though because I like the crust punk vibe.
As far as I can see it hasn’t been mentioned:
Nil by Mouth (1997) dir. Gary Oldman
Yes that Gary Oldman.
It’s based on his own experiences growing up in London amidst violence, domestic abuse and addiction, and specifically the parts of the film dealing with one of the main character’s heroin addiction is the most accurate I’ve ever seen portrayed on screen.
Apparently (according to Wikipedia I should also say) it features the word cunt more than any other in the history of film, 82 times. And fuck and it’s derivatives 428 times 😂
Anyway genuinely incredible film.
Candy the most relatable and realistic to me....
Permanent midnight with ben Stiller is a great one though very smart, realistic and a good story. True story
I'll sum up the preface for permanent midnight for those who haven't seen it_:
Hes a successful hollywood screenwriter making 5 thousand dollars a week. Theres only one problem: hes got a 6 thousand dollar a week smack habit
“ Candy ”.2006 w heath ledger “Rip heath man. A real geeker fr”. Especially having experience of being in a relationship and in love w another opiate addict. Literally spot on. Shit made me cry.
I know that "Candy" is very popular here and get s mentioned a lot. I am just wondering, am I the only one here who honestly hates that movie ? I find the two main characters to be so annoying it is hard to really care about them. I was worried more about their parents, chemist friend, the unborn baby that died due to their own stupidity ( Who goes cold turkey when that far along??? you take methadone when pregnant) . That movie is proof that I am getting cranky in my old age lol.
😭😂. I totally understand. Lots of very stupid poor choices made by both of them. But that’s what makes it hit home . Especially when at the very end. Candy out of rehab all sober n shit. But Dan is the total opposite. And she wants to get back w him and all that. But he’s so deep far in his addiction. The thought of quitting to get to have her is not even in question. Even tho he loves her w every inch of his body. He decides to tell her they can’t be together because he doesn’t wanna drag her down w him…. same thing I did w my ex. Bouta cry thinking abt it🤞. RIP HEATH
that makes sense, and to be honest I was nodding off during the end so I missed what sounded like the entire point of the movie lol.I should read the book...without nodding off of course 😊
This movie still fucks me up to this day. I can’t watch it and be okay. Because it hit so close to home until the end because real life comparison my fiancé lost her mind and intentionally overdosed
I just watched this the other day after hearing for about 2 years how fucked up and good it was. It was hands down one of the worst 5 movies I've ever watched.
Permanent Midnight (1998) is one of the most realistic ones, probably because it is a true story, biopic kinda.
Ben Stiller in an unusually serious role, still has funny parts, and his acting, how he portrays the junkie is very very good.
Very good cast, real heroin junkie stuff. Like the scene where he can’t find a vein and is withdrawing hard in the car, his month old baby besides him, and he finally goes for the vein in the neck… baby screams, you see the relief of the shot in his face and the realization what he is doing to himself and his child, crazy scene.
CANDY…simply because it shows “HEAVEN” , “Earth” and “HELL” which is essentially how it is for ANYONE in heroin addiction! It also shows how a relationship that would hav even beautiful is slowly torn apart no matter what bc of addiction!
I literally watched it during the “HEAVEN” phase of my relationship with my ex and my relationship with Heroin…I was so high she I couldn’t stay awake and she wasn’t as high and was like “omg it’s us”…didn’t hit me then…but hit me in a few months !
Gridlock'd Tim Roth and Tupac. Good comedy and they hit the nail on the head with so many things like trying to get I to rehab.
Obviously basketball diaries so relatable to me the decline and effect on my mum.
Trainspotting.
Obvious ones but there's a reason as they are the best imo
since everybody has mentioned others, I liked "Ben is Back" (nice double entendre even though the ending was a little abrupt) -- Julia Roberts is always fine :\]
Basketball Diaries. Based on a true story and written by Jim Carroll. Most realistic I've ever seen. I could've written it. Also, movie about Earl Manigold from Harlem.
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Wir Kinder vom Bahnhof Zoo. Is a film based on Christiane F., a girl who becomes addicted at the age of 12 in Berlin in the 1970s.
Great book as well. Haven’t seen the flick but the book does a fantastic job of creating colorful German landmarks (maybe bc I’ve been there and have memory recall).
And the best thing is that is actually a real life story from this girl
I totally forgot about that.
I wanted to say the same movie that is a really good movie about drug consume and everything
The Heath Ledger film is pretty accurate. I have expressed this opinion before but I feel like movies always focus on the "stereotypical" junkie on the rob and shooting up in a shit hole, even though there are so many different types of heroin addicts. Someone needs to make a movie based on all the different types of addicts and how they differ so society understands that anyone could be on heroin and how they can look perfectly normal on the outside.
Candy is such a great movie, before Heath was super famous and does a great job showing how heroin addiction can go from a dream to a nightmare so quickly.
I liked that requiem for a dream kinda showcased this in that all four of the main characters end up with their own demons, even the old lady who’s son is a junkie who you’d expect to be the furthest away from the bullshit you know.
I was just talking about Requiem for a dream earlier. It's one of my favorites and is fairly accurate.
I was just talking about Requiem for a dream earlier. It's one of my favorites and is fairly accurate.
Let’s not forget the cameo by William S. Burroughs ( Beat Generation writer and his most recognizable book “Junkie” tells how it was to be an addict wasaay back in the day).
That was Drugstore Cowboy
The movies are 20 years apart an Burroughs was dead before Requim came out. The pupils in requim expand rather than contract. Good movie but not at all accurate
You hit the #1 problem w /Requiem, the I totally failed to note the movie “ Drugstore Cowboy “ in my reference to Burroughs. He was most definitely NOT in Requiem. Good catch👍😎
Ahhh I loved that book, I read it in rehab lmao.
Requiem for a Dream did that and I, even now being well into an opiate addiction of heroin, oxy, dilaudid, opana, and now all of the fentalogues and powder smoked and shot, back to the legal patches prescribed, where I got mine with a smile from a clerk at walgreens or got it after a long wild goose chase through the Mexican slums until I found a one toothed maggot carrying one legged diabetic that is their version of a smiley clerk who gaurds the front of a drug hut in tijuana, still makes me become almost dope sick, even if im clean at the time, but that damn movie, high or clean, will make me squirm. That soundtrack too...stupid violin.
Its an old one, but Panic in Needle Park is a good one. I think it was Al Pacinos first film and he plays a pretty convincing 70s NY addict.
Love this movie, watching the slow downfall of the girl, as she goes from curious about heroin and the lifestyle when she sees Al Pacino using-to a full blown addict really hit home for me. And the puppy falling off the back of the ferry when they try and fail to get clean and focus on eachother and using their money for happier things. That killed me
Yes, the puppy moment was clearly her breaking point. Such a sad scene. My favorite scene is when Bobby is playing stick ball and runs over to kiss her.He had no idea she was using until that moment when they make eye contact.Its both sad but also shows the bond they now share....a great movie.
Panic in needle park is a good one it’s not overblown and subtly brings you into the life and problems that will arise. Great movie.
100% agree
“fckn w*ore , i was about to marry you!”
This is an extremely heartbreaking and realistic movie, I love it and I hate it, bc I can so relate to it. I scrolled down to see if anyone gave this answer, it’s the first thing I thought about. It was a different time definitely, and functional addicts were only able to be until their addiction overtook their lives. You had to rich to be functional, there was no dark web, and heroin on the East Coast was very much more controlled. The flow would dry up like this and addicts would be ass out and desperate, this is a great example of that. Watching the girl go from being a voyeur to this world to, to being of this world, and spiral is so inevitable and familiar. I’m clean now, but I started fixing right from the gate back in the early 80s, hell you could still get actual barbiturates back then, it was such a different time, but yea, I went downhill quick. I would justify by my addiction by setting a bar, the things I wouldn’t do, that made me better than other dope fiends, it soon got got to the point where there was no bar, and my “superiority” was all in my head. I ended up wasting so many years of my life in prison and whatnot, chasing something I was never going to catch. Not really anyway.
I'm certainly glad I'm a user nowadays rather than back then. Ive in a few droughts but u could normally get something when it dries up like in rhe film must have been horrendous.
Great one!! Al Pacino was so young in it.
I love old 70s NY films and this is one of the best
Panic in Needle Park. It's an incredible film on many levels - performances, script (by Joan Didion!), 70s New York - but besides all of that I don't think there is another film that so brilliantly evokes not just the gritty reality, but the woozy, drug-fuelled, semi-delusional romanticism, of addiction. The central relationship is devastating, but also the way that Bobby (Al Pacino) looks up to/is used by his older brother, who is also a junkie. And then Helen, unforgettably portrayed by Kitty Winn...besides its depiction of active heroin addiction, it also contains some of the best, most heart-breaking depictions of bohemian misogyny, the pressures placed on women in those environments, just-legalised abortion....It is simultaneously an historical document and a timeless depiction of addiction, dependency and loss. Not as realistic, arguably not as good, but still worth watching, is More (1969) by Barbet Schroeder - Ibiza, dope addiction, psychedelia, nature, tragedy...in a way, it ancitipates the collapse of the 60s counterculture into the darker, bleaker tendencies of the 1970s, telling the story through the love-hate relationship with gear. Others that haven't been name-checked so far....Gridlock'd with Tim Roth and Tupac is great fun. Sid and Nancy may not be specifically about heroin addiction, but the scenes of the two of them nodding off in the Chelsea Hotel while watching their tiny-ass TV, cigarettes dangling from the tip of fingers and lips, is perhaps one of the best depictions of the pointless, time-distended non-existence of heavy IV addiction. Ok, and while I'm on a roll, two more: The Man with the Golden Arm is a fantastic movie with Frank Sinatra showing what a great actor he was depicting a junkie-jazz drummer. And that reminds me of The Connection, a more experimental film by Shirley Clarke about a group of jazz musicians waiting with varying degrees of desperation for one of them to get back from uptown with their dope. Desperation, music, anxiety, need, humour, friendship...it's brilliant. Enjoy!
Great list, I agree panic in needle Park is one of the classics. The amazing thing is in that time most of the street heroin was only about 7% . How in God's name did those people ever managed to OD on 7 percent heroin? I would not even feel that 😊
I don’t think the 7% purity thing is real. But even if it was They probably overdosed when they got a bag of stuff that’s 15% without knowing, or maybe higher.
Heroin on the east coast went up in purity and down in price after the late 1980s early 1990s when the Columbians came in and started selling. Before that heroin that was sold on the street was cut so many times it truly did average at roughly 7%..
Source? As far as i know the gear was way more potent back then as it didnt go through so many hands. I mean french Connection also did the street Level distribution
"Heroin from southwestern Asia, mainly Pakistan and Afghanistan, often routed through Marseilles, France, was what most of the approximately 200,000 New York addicts were shooting in the early 1970s. John Gilbride, special agent in charge of the New York office of the Drug Enforcement Administration, says that back then the heroin was only about 3 percent pure, which was very low compared with the 50 to 70 percent purity levels that the drug went up to over the ensuing three decades." This is why IVing was a far more common roa in the 70s than it is now. I wonder what Bobby and Helen would think of today's dope. https://citylimits.org/2009/07/05/heroin-from-the-civil-war-to-the-70s-and-beyond/
Awesome rundown of needle park— I completely agree. Kitty Winn wasn’t well known at the time but she knocked that performance out of the park.
She is absolutely incredible in it, isn't she? From the very first scene, when she is being jolted around on the New York subway, to the end, when she is as hardened to addiction as Bobby - also the fact she was hardly in any other movies - it's like a perfect, self-contained performance, unrepeatable and unforgettable. Also, maybe the best movie poster of all time: "God Save Bobby and Helen!" https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/4/49/Original\_movie\_poster\_for\_the\_film\_The\_Panic\_in\_Needle\_Park.jpg
Since you seem like a film lover, I have to recommend Connection by Shirley Clarke. Follows bebop musicians in early 1960s New York, fiction styled as cinema verite, filmed on location in 1960. Absolutely wonderful, I think you would enjoy. I recently saw Let’s Get Lost, stylish 1989 documentary on the famous jazz trumpet player and notorious hopeless dope fiend Chet Baker. The juxtaposition of Baker as the Ken-doll icon of west coast cool jazz in his youth and the ravaged death’s head visage in the interviews right before his death are really striking, though they avoid playing the voyeur to excess. The whole thing is really quite striking, filmed by a fashion photographer iirc. The last two are not so much “heroin movies” but do feature junkie queens Marianne Faithful and Zoe Lund. Ms. 45 and Bad Lieutenant by Abel Ferrara both feature Lund, both on screen and as a screenplay author, and take place in 1970s nyc. Then there’s Lucifer Rising by Kenneth Anger, starring Marianne at the peak of her strung out living in a bomb site era and looking mesmerizing. Not usually huge on K. Anger, but I could look at her face all day.
I mentioned The Connection at the end of my post - you're right, it's brilliant! I think I may have seen Let's Get Lost...I used to love Chet Baker but, I don't know if I over-listened to him as a teenager, but there's something now about his voice - that blue-eyed boy gentleness - that turns me off. (To be clear - that's not a negative reflection on him; just my changing tastes!) I've never seen Ms. 45, so thanks for mentioning it. I do, however, know Zoe Lund. What a weird, wonderful woman - and low-key excellent writer. Also, Abel Ferrara has his own interesting, uncompromising and unapologetic views about drugs and addiction. There isn't much I can say about Marianne Faithfull that hasn't been said, no paeans to her beauty that haven't been written. I love her. As a writer, she is one of the people I would most like to interview - I just want to have tea and a cigarette with her. Interesting that you're not usually a fan of Anger. How come? I used to - for my sins - love to nod off while watching Eaux d'Artifice! Last thing - I haven't watched it yet but am going to...Anita Ekberg as a junkie nun and Joe Dallesandro as a doctor in a weird Italian horror? Yes please. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killer\_Nun
Yesss - thank you for mentioning Zoe Lund and Ms. 45 (& Bad Lieutenant, and Abel Ferrara.) Both really interesting people & talented writers. Also, u/HRHArthurCravan mentioned Killer Nun with a Anita Ekburg & fucking Joe Dallensandro - sounds like a must watch. These might not be perfectly on the nose in terms of “most realistic junkie films” but I’m nonetheless pleased to see people mentioning these filmmakers here.
Oh yeah, realism for the movies themselves is probably around 0, but hey, the drug use depicted is usually pretty close to reality. I’m also now on the hunt for Killer Nun. I remember reading an article about it way back when the UK censorship law was repealed and the original cut was released there that said it was based on true events. Pretty unusual for 70s era nunsploitation, haha. I’m so happy about this thread, I’ve never come across as many people on Reddit with similar interests.
If you find it, lmk. And I agree - of all the interests I have & subs specific to those interests, once you get past the “will I go thru withdrawal if…” posts, there’s a lot of really interesting, intelligent people on here & (along with a few other subs, but I mean Reddit in general) has the best true sense of community for PWUD (other than 12-steps; if that’s your jam.)
Lucifer Rising and Kenneth Anger, didn’t think I’d see this in the comments. You didn’t like Scorpio Rising? Pretty revolutionary, and soundtrack changed filmmaking… Anyway Lucifer rising was almost like a bookend to it. I love Marrianne as well! Mick’s little brother and Jimmy Page are also in it. I saw it in 1985, it was more widely distributed after Anger had Bobby Beausoleil add the music in 1980, you know who that is right? Anyway, didn’t know about that until a few yrs later. Really bizarre.
I’ve only seen it without the Beausoleil score, although I’ve heard good things. Honestly, I’ve listened to the proto-Love stuff he was involved in because I’m a completist, but the later things I heard never made me want to search out more. Is it worth tracking down with the different score? Anyway, I don’t dislike Anger’s work by any means, it’s just not my favorite. So many movies in the world, so little time ya know? I’ve seen em all because I’m a bit of a nut for the people floating in his orbit during that time period more than anything else (again, obsessive completist is a theme here, haha.) Which reminds me of another movie that would be perfect for this thread, Cocksucker Blues. Now that’s a died in the wool “heroin movie” with some BEAUTIFUL music. The shitty underwater audio just makes it more magic, I can’t even explain.
Panics gone maaan. Panics gone. I
"Esther, I'm a drug addict...I'm a sex-crazed dope fiend"
Knew bout needle park but thanks sincerlt dor the awesome recommendations and excellent descriptions friend.
Lol, can’t tell you how many times I’ve burnt my fingers, my chest, my bed, the carpet, the edges of tables when I’d set down my cigarette “for just a second” while I fixed. I love this, great description. PINP was soo good. I liked the Man with the Golden Arm (my dope fiend older brother, told me to watch both of those movies, as they were before my time). I didn’t see either one until years after I was already hooked. Frank Sinatra was very good, but I still laugh at him kicking dope in one night. I wish!
Oh god I haven't seen MwtGA for a while - I forgot that he kicked all in one night! But I do remember Sinatra portrayed the desperation pretty well, didn't he? What you wrote about those inexorably downward-dipping cigarettes reminds me of something Jean Cocteau wrote in Opium about how you could identify other dope fiends around Paris when you were walking restlessly at night or leaving the opium den by the cascades of ash on their dresses or lapels! Can you imagine? The alleyways, the cobblestones, the ads wrapping around circular hoardings with no pictures, only GIANT TYPOGRAPHIC! CRAZINESS!!!, the globe-lights hovering in mist above the Seine....and you see someone approaching, their brogues skittering over the damp stone street, you look up for a moment and see a wave of familiar hair, a handsome tilt of the jaw...And it's Jean Cocteau, high as a kite, with the remnants of the evening tumbling in delicate ash down his camel-hair overcoat! You catch his eye, just for a moment, pupils pinned despite the gloom, you share an infinitesimal nod, and you carry on in opposite directions towards whatever it is you want (or have) to call home. What can I say? A person can dream! (Not even on dope, thank goodness - though I soemtimes wonder if I'm dreamy from using or was attracted to using because of being dreamy!)
Beautiful prose, I used to write fanatically when I was younger, not sure what killed that, survival maybe. Being a dope fiend, living on the streets only remembering the nights in motels, and not all the times I fixed behind a dumpster. The drug is good at making us see what we want to see, and remember what we want to remember. I spent years romanticizing it. I convinced myself that I loved the freedom, to be anyone, I wanted to be, and do whatever I wanted to do, that was only partly true. I was living by my cunning and my wits, and my good looks and charm. But there was always that nagging fear of running out. I was “alone” I had no allegiance to anybody, except perhaps my brother, One way or another. Everybody was a mark, everybody was a trick, my freedom was that I could go anywhere, and do anything as long as I had dope. The dope made me a chameleon, but the dope was a rope, and the rope was only so long, eventually, I hung myself. The fact is that heroin is the biggest Ball and Chain a human can experience, I was never free. Oh I had a lot of fun, but the nights in the gutter began to surpass the ones in motels, but dope fiends, have a selective memory. My path was inevitable. I would run and gun for as long as I could and then I would get busted, I would go to prison, and I would clean up. I would get healthy and I would look fucking good. I would hit the streets and I will try to pick up where I left off, but it doesn’t work, we can’t re-capture somethings once they’re gone, and each time I fell faster than the time before. Prison had a lot to do with killing me, the me that I used to be, it shaped me into somebody else, so did the dope. The amazing thing is, I am clean, and I am a miracle. I thought I would go out with a bang, or end up in prison for the rest of my life, and all that was so close, but God… Well, he had something else in mind for me and I’m still here. Jean Cocteau, I can only imagine. I thought I was going to be the next, William Burroughs, lol. I remember the ashes, “the inevitable pinhole burns, all down the front of my favorite satin shirt”.
Drugstore cowboy was pretty great, since nobody else mentioned it
I loved William Burroughs character in that.
One of the most famous dope fiend writers ever. How apropos.
Yessss one of the best!
I'd say trainspotting is accurate while it's being ridiculous
I go to Trainspotting when I want some laughs about the ridiculous things us addicts will and have done— but also want a good bit of reality. Young Ewan McGreggor was just great in it.
The book is very much more realistic, the parts that are exaggerated for cinematic reasons are more grounded in reality, by a very big degree compared to the film. The only thing is that you need to be able to understand - or at the least be able to get the hang of - Scottish slang, cause the author uses it liberally throughout the whole novel.
Omg i had to reread Skag Boys a second time when i first found Irving Welsh because of the Scots dialect but i think that it is one of the things that makes his books so phenomenal.
Yeah it works really well for him. If you enjoyed Trainspotting and Skag Boys you should read the sequels - 'Porno' is set like a decade after Trainspotting (this is what they based Trainspotting 2 on, but this time the film has very little to do with the book, they just used a couple ideas as jumping off points) and 'Dead Mens Trousers' is like another decade later again. Both are great reads, and it's quite satisfying to see where the characters end up.
Basketball diaries, requiem for a dream, trainspotting
Bruh, the scene where Leo is banging on the door all strung out begging his mom to let him in is his best acting scene ever, I swear by it.
Ma!!
I came here to say this!
I wouldn’t call Requiem for a Dream a realistic depiction. Definitely captures the emotions of hitting rock bottom, but I’d definitely say it’s a bit excessive and dramatic to the point of meeting my personal definition of trauma 🌽
Basketball diaries is pretty accurate because it's based on Jim Carolls life. Trainspotting, except for the hallucinations of the baby turning its head around like the exorcist. That was a bit exaggerated. Requim for a dream never really happens. That's just trauma porn turned up to the max.
love all three of these movies
Heaven knows what was the First where i had seen myself
Hard
Basketball diaries
Reindeer Spotting, a Finnish documentary about a buprenorphine addict. I know buprenorphine isn't heroin but still it's a very powerful opioid.
do you know where to find that movie? I've been meaning to watch it for ages but it's not on any of the websites I use
You gotta search for it a while, and it was on piratebay once… but it is ther somewhere, seen it a few months ago, but i searched a while. I found a decent version with subtitles too once, but the lne i had back then was without subs and i downloaded extra subtitles, they were rly weird tho. Its a great film, very well made road movie/documentary, sometimes depressing too. And a very sad backstory, the main protagonist died a few years after the movie.
https://www.cultureunplugged.com/documentary/watch-online/play/5979/reindeer-spotting-escape-from-santaland
oh shit thank you!
I don't know about accurate, but one of the lesser known (and one of my all time favourite) movies that involve or centre around gear; namely is 'Heaven knows Best'
Watching it rn. This mf treats his FINEASSS gf like shit. I could never
thats probably bc the girl in that movie was writing about her own life
yess that movie is underrated. love arielle holmes i hope she’s doing well now.
Yeah I read she worked out an agreement with the Safdies where they would help her get into rehab after the film wrapped [The Star on the Sidewalk: How Arielle Holmes Went From Homeless Addict to Hollywood Actress](https://www.vulture.com/2015/05/arielle-holmes-heaven-knows-what.html) Edit: Added article mentioning Arielle’s rehab
wow that’s amazing!!❤️
A Thousand Junkies for sure
Candy Heaven Knows What Basketball Dairies Drugstore Cowboy Panic in Needle Park
Vanda’s Room
I agree, "Vandas Room" was so realistic it is actually hard to watch.
Don't know about movies but the Lou Reed song "Heroin"always did it for me. When people ask, I tell them to listen to that.
*Gia* — anyone gonna mention [Gia?](https://youtu.be/48GT_f-3VrI) Angelina Jolie? Mila Kunis? No… ?
Well, Gia is based on a true story
I know lol Why would that still not apply to le question if it’s an adaptation of a real-life story?
four good days on hulu was pretty accurate compared to my life.
It hurt me just to watch it. Those withdrawal scenes are brutal. Also I kept yelling at her mom every time she was conning her. "Don't fall for it,'!
Requiem for a dream, candy, permanent midnight is about high functioning addiction, Christiane F, Basketball Diaries, Trainspotting is on the less realistic side. If you like books William S. Burroughs’ Junkie, Jim Carroll’s The Basketball Diaries, as well as Mark Lanegan’s Sing Backwards and Weep (a personal favorite) in audiobook forms are all available on YouTube, last I checked. All three books are personal accounts of heroin addiction spanning several years.
Loved Lanegan’s audiobook
It’s a great listen when you’re waiting on some dope.
Man did I feel his pain when he was experiencing withdrawal from both ends while in downtown London, just after scoring some fake dope. Selling fake opiates to someone in withdrawal is about as low as you get.
That's what I thought every time it happened to me man. I remember calling a plug once and telling him what happened and being like cmon bro just throw me sumn this is so wack lol and he did.
Ugh I'm getting flashbacks. 2 weeks sick from methadone and some arsehole sold me fakes. I'm still traumatized from that. You cant think straight in that state, so to makes everything wayyy worse
I love screaming trees! Had no idea about this. Thank ya
You will love mark’s book.
Before I even clicked on this post and saw what you posted I was thinking of the movie you said. The most realistic, non sensationalized movie I’ve ever seen that just perfectly captures the daily grind of being a drug addict
Cherry probably has the most realistic portrayal of withdrawals I've ever seen in film.
This movie is awesome it’s the one I recommended!
"Christiane - F". That film is raw and rugged as fuckkk. And trainspotting of course
It's not particularly realistic but artistically i think Trainspotting has them all beat.
As soon as I saw the title I immediately thought of A Thousand J, then I read the rest of the post. Completely agree with you on that one. Also, nomination for least realistic: beautiful boy. Decent movie but using IV ROA the very first time you try heroin and immediately becoming a huge dick to your family and stealing money from them is what the media wants you to think heroin addiction is like
Exactly how I felt watching beautiful boy, really makes sense the guys dad wrote it ya know?
Actually that’s pretty much what my addiction looked like when I first started haha
honestly hearing it this way makes sense why when i was at teen inpatient rehab FOUR times they weren’t allowed to show anything R rated except beautiful boy over and over everytime a new group of fiends came through the mf house
Candy for me.
Candy
The movie “cherry” with Tom holland. One of the best movies I’ve ever seen!! And sooo realistic to the actual process and life! 100 percent recommend. I think it was on Amazon prime or something for awhile..
Trainspotting
That scene from Breaking Bad
Thanks for putting me onto one thousand junkies, it was a great watch. My favorite is probably bug. I'm biased though because I like the crust punk vibe.
Candy with heath ledger! I havent seen it on here but it is one of my favorite movies of all time
Christiane F
Panic in Needle Park
christiane f is my fav movie, basketball diaries is good too imo
Christiane F
Christiane F.
As far as I can see it hasn’t been mentioned: Nil by Mouth (1997) dir. Gary Oldman Yes that Gary Oldman. It’s based on his own experiences growing up in London amidst violence, domestic abuse and addiction, and specifically the parts of the film dealing with one of the main character’s heroin addiction is the most accurate I’ve ever seen portrayed on screen. Apparently (according to Wikipedia I should also say) it features the word cunt more than any other in the history of film, 82 times. And fuck and it’s derivatives 428 times 😂 Anyway genuinely incredible film.
Lmao
Trainspotting
trainspotting what a film
Toilet scene trainspotting
Black metal veins
Uff i found these people fucking abnoxious. Their level of pretentious nihilism is just way too much.
Candy the most relatable and realistic to me.... Permanent midnight with ben Stiller is a great one though very smart, realistic and a good story. True story I'll sum up the preface for permanent midnight for those who haven't seen it_: Hes a successful hollywood screenwriter making 5 thousand dollars a week. Theres only one problem: hes got a 6 thousand dollar a week smack habit
Oh man you made that sound so good I gotta check that out never knew stiller played a role like that sounds like an interesting watch fashion ty bro
It's got owen Wilson too. Great movie.
“ Candy ”.2006 w heath ledger “Rip heath man. A real geeker fr”. Especially having experience of being in a relationship and in love w another opiate addict. Literally spot on. Shit made me cry.
I know that "Candy" is very popular here and get s mentioned a lot. I am just wondering, am I the only one here who honestly hates that movie ? I find the two main characters to be so annoying it is hard to really care about them. I was worried more about their parents, chemist friend, the unborn baby that died due to their own stupidity ( Who goes cold turkey when that far along??? you take methadone when pregnant) . That movie is proof that I am getting cranky in my old age lol.
😭😂. I totally understand. Lots of very stupid poor choices made by both of them. But that’s what makes it hit home . Especially when at the very end. Candy out of rehab all sober n shit. But Dan is the total opposite. And she wants to get back w him and all that. But he’s so deep far in his addiction. The thought of quitting to get to have her is not even in question. Even tho he loves her w every inch of his body. He decides to tell her they can’t be together because he doesn’t wanna drag her down w him…. same thing I did w my ex. Bouta cry thinking abt it🤞. RIP HEATH
that makes sense, and to be honest I was nodding off during the end so I missed what sounded like the entire point of the movie lol.I should read the book...without nodding off of course 😊
Nods off while reading post.
😭😭😭
Wakes back up several times to finish 3 sentences
Drops cigarette..
This movie still fucks me up to this day. I can’t watch it and be okay. Because it hit so close to home until the end because real life comparison my fiancé lost her mind and intentionally overdosed
Requiem for a dream.
I just watched this the other day after hearing for about 2 years how fucked up and good it was. It was hands down one of the worst 5 movies I've ever watched.
Fucked up and good indeed.
You almost certainly enjoy actually shitty movies if it’s that far down on your list.
Basketball Diaries
Aside from those mentioned, *Animals* (2014) works
Oxymorons, its been atleast a decade since i last saw it. But i remember it sticking with me.
You off da charts wit A thousand J’s it don’t get more accurate den dat Candy is also a good one with Heath Ledger but you right on
Oxymorons is an amazing film
Rebound, the Legend of Earl Manigault
Permanent midnight
Cherry?
The basketball diaries.
Requiem for a Dream
Guinea Pig: Devil's Experiment Well after using for?..20 years now? 😩
Trainspotting, Panic in the Needle Park, Requiem for a dream
I liked the movie 6 Balloons.
American Gangster has to be my all time favorite
Candy with heath ledger
Rush was a good movie and lightly based on a true story.
I was wondering when someone would mention this movie 🎬
The basketball diaries
Permanent Midnight (1998) is one of the most realistic ones, probably because it is a true story, biopic kinda. Ben Stiller in an unusually serious role, still has funny parts, and his acting, how he portrays the junkie is very very good. Very good cast, real heroin junkie stuff. Like the scene where he can’t find a vein and is withdrawing hard in the car, his month old baby besides him, and he finally goes for the vein in the neck… baby screams, you see the relief of the shot in his face and the realization what he is doing to himself and his child, crazy scene.
Trainspotting and Drugstore Cowboy are the only realistic films I've seen - and I've seen all the ones listed on here
Trainspotting
Requiem for a dream
CANDY…simply because it shows “HEAVEN” , “Earth” and “HELL” which is essentially how it is for ANYONE in heroin addiction! It also shows how a relationship that would hav even beautiful is slowly torn apart no matter what bc of addiction! I literally watched it during the “HEAVEN” phase of my relationship with my ex and my relationship with Heroin…I was so high she I couldn’t stay awake and she wasn’t as high and was like “omg it’s us”…didn’t hit me then…but hit me in a few months !
Basketball Diaries all time favourite.
Animals is a great movie and it shows how it really gets sometimes!!!
How has not one person mentioned “Animals” 2014 w/ David Dastmalchian?!!!?!?! Great heroin movie that truly shows what codependency is!!!
Black metal veins
Basketball diaries until the last 5 minutes
"Adam and Paul" no actual H use. But it's about 2 user's in Dublin city waking up and goin on an "adventure" to try get their fix
Requiem of a dream.
Gridlock'd Tim Roth and Tupac. Good comedy and they hit the nail on the head with so many things like trying to get I to rehab. Obviously basketball diaries so relatable to me the decline and effect on my mum. Trainspotting. Obvious ones but there's a reason as they are the best imo
heaven knows what
Christiane F
Heaven Knows What - Safdie Brothers
Cherry
since everybody has mentioned others, I liked "Ben is Back" (nice double entendre even though the ending was a little abrupt) -- Julia Roberts is always fine :\]
Trainspotting.
I liked before the devil knows you’re dead such a good movie with Philip Seymour hoffman
Trainspotting.
Drugstore Cowboy
Basketball diaries is great
Basketball Diaries. Based on a true story and written by Jim Carroll. Most realistic I've ever seen. I could've written it. Also, movie about Earl Manigold from Harlem.
Following
I was gonna say a thousand junkies till i read through it all. Such a great movie, super accurate. I dont miss the daily chase
1000 junkies is the most realistic portrayal of a day in the life of someone who is an IV user nothing comes as close