Booze, Drugs & Creativity
September 26, 2014 12:13 PM Subscribe
A film professor friend is compiling a list of movies about drug and alcohol abuse in connection to the creative process. Got any suggestions?
He writes:
"I need your collective help compiling a list a of films specifically about drug and alcohol abuse in connection to the creative process. Think Naked Lunch, Fear and Loathing, Walk the Line, etc. Biopics and pure fiction are good, but only movies."
Would love to hear suggestions of lesser-known/foreign-language movies as well.
Thank you!
He writes:
"I need your collective help compiling a list a of films specifically about drug and alcohol abuse in connection to the creative process. Think Naked Lunch, Fear and Loathing, Walk the Line, etc. Biopics and pure fiction are good, but only movies."
Would love to hear suggestions of lesser-known/foreign-language movies as well.
Thank you!
Where The Buffalo Roam, in conjunction with Fear and Loathing.
posted by SeedStitch at 12:21 PM on September 26, 2014
posted by SeedStitch at 12:21 PM on September 26, 2014
The Lost Weekend with Ray Milland as an alcoholic writer.
Barton Fink had a Faulkneresque character.
posted by dances_with_sneetches at 12:22 PM on September 26, 2014 [3 favorites]
Barton Fink had a Faulkneresque character.
posted by dances_with_sneetches at 12:22 PM on September 26, 2014 [3 favorites]
The Doors and the whole rest of the rock 'n roll documentary genre?
posted by H. Roark at 12:24 PM on September 26, 2014
posted by H. Roark at 12:24 PM on September 26, 2014
The Shining shows a recovering alcoholic finding inspiration to write page after page of material during a tranquil getaway in a lazy mountain resort.
posted by dances_with_sneetches at 12:27 PM on September 26, 2014 [8 favorites]
posted by dances_with_sneetches at 12:27 PM on September 26, 2014 [8 favorites]
I am beginning to think you will have a very long list.
Without the links:
Bird (Charlie Parker story)
Lady Sings the Blues (Billie Holliday)
The Rose (after Janis Joplin)
El Cantante (Hector Lavoe)
All is by my Side (Jimi Hendrix)
posted by dances_with_sneetches at 12:36 PM on September 26, 2014
Without the links:
Bird (Charlie Parker story)
Lady Sings the Blues (Billie Holliday)
The Rose (after Janis Joplin)
El Cantante (Hector Lavoe)
All is by my Side (Jimi Hendrix)
posted by dances_with_sneetches at 12:36 PM on September 26, 2014
How about Sid and Nancy?
posted by cleverevans at 12:46 PM on September 26, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by cleverevans at 12:46 PM on September 26, 2014 [1 favorite]
Tender Mercies.
Bruce Beresford/Horton Foote 1983, one of those "if you haven't seen it you really should" films.
Robert Duvall's Mack Sledge is a recovering alcoholic country star who finds Jesus, love (Tess Harper and her son), and a renewed creative spark in a small Texas town where he has gone to hide after hitting rock bottom.
Freaking masterpiece of a movie, inarguably one of Duvall's best performances (of a stunning oeuvre) and with the bonus of Ellen Barkin's sparkling debut as Duvall's troubled daughter. I see that film as quite specifically centered on addiction and creativity in relation to masculinity.
posted by spitbull at 1:11 PM on September 26, 2014 [1 favorite]
Bruce Beresford/Horton Foote 1983, one of those "if you haven't seen it you really should" films.
Robert Duvall's Mack Sledge is a recovering alcoholic country star who finds Jesus, love (Tess Harper and her son), and a renewed creative spark in a small Texas town where he has gone to hide after hitting rock bottom.
Freaking masterpiece of a movie, inarguably one of Duvall's best performances (of a stunning oeuvre) and with the bonus of Ellen Barkin's sparkling debut as Duvall's troubled daughter. I see that film as quite specifically centered on addiction and creativity in relation to masculinity.
posted by spitbull at 1:11 PM on September 26, 2014 [1 favorite]
And of course the much lesser Crazy Heart, Scott Cooper's 2009 movie, tells a similar story of alcoholism and redemption for Jeff Bridges' character, who is portrayed as a brilliant songwriter (like Duvall's Mack Sledge in Tender Mercies) losing it all to alcoholism until Maggie Gylenhall saves his bacon (after he nearly loses her kid while on a drinking binge).
But truthfully, Jeff Bridges ain't no Robert Duvall, is all I'll say. Although neither one should have sung his own part.
posted by spitbull at 1:24 PM on September 26, 2014
But truthfully, Jeff Bridges ain't no Robert Duvall, is all I'll say. Although neither one should have sung his own part.
posted by spitbull at 1:24 PM on September 26, 2014
High Art.
(The IMDB short description doesn't say it, but it's about heroin addiction in relation to creativity, ambition and sex.)
posted by third rail at 1:35 PM on September 26, 2014 [1 favorite]
(The IMDB short description doesn't say it, but it's about heroin addiction in relation to creativity, ambition and sex.)
posted by third rail at 1:35 PM on September 26, 2014 [1 favorite]
To go along with Barfly, Factotum.
posted by danabanana at 4:22 PM on September 26, 2014
posted by danabanana at 4:22 PM on September 26, 2014
Also, Henry Fool.
posted by danabanana at 4:31 PM on September 26, 2014
posted by danabanana at 4:31 PM on September 26, 2014
Waking Life is implicitly about this.
posted by klangklangston at 5:06 PM on September 26, 2014
posted by klangklangston at 5:06 PM on September 26, 2014
Nicholas Ray's In a Lonely Place
Saving Mr. Banks (not the writer, but how they're affected by it)
Seven Psychopaths (its writer/director, Martin McDonagh, has a fictionalized version of himself played by Colin Farrell)
Burn After Reading is borderline, but Osborne Cox is working on his memoirs while dealing with a lot of stuff, he's shown drinking IIRC)
La Vie en Rose
Leaving Las Vegas
Young Adult
The Doors
Withnail & I
posted by JauntyFedora at 3:40 PM on October 2, 2014
Saving Mr. Banks (not the writer, but how they're affected by it)
Seven Psychopaths (its writer/director, Martin McDonagh, has a fictionalized version of himself played by Colin Farrell)
Burn After Reading is borderline, but Osborne Cox is working on his memoirs while dealing with a lot of stuff, he's shown drinking IIRC)
La Vie en Rose
Leaving Las Vegas
Young Adult
The Doors
Withnail & I
posted by JauntyFedora at 3:40 PM on October 2, 2014
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by something something at 12:20 PM on September 26, 2014 [1 favorite]