AUD/SUD Edition Movie Exercises
ALCOHOL
(R, 2018) — Fame and love collide as a musician’s alcohol use disorder and depression lead to self-destruction, illustrating the co-occurrence of mood disorder and addiction.
(NR, 2020) — Four teachers test a theory that constant mild intoxication improves life, spiraling into dependency and existential emptiness.
(R, 2009) — A washed-up country singer’s career and health collapse from drinking, until love and music offer a path to redemption.
(NR, 1962) — A couple’s romance devolves into mutual alcohol misuse, illustrating the shared nature of addiction and denial.
(R, 2012) — A pilot who saves his passengers while intoxicated faces moral reckoning and denial around his alcohol use disorder.
(R, 1995) — A Hollywood producer who lost everything because of his drinking arrives in Las Vegas to drink himself to death, and forms a friendship with a local sex worker.
(R, 2012) — A young teacher tries to rebuild her life and marriage after confronting the drinking problem she hid behind humor and charm.
(R, 2021) — A successful realtor’s “social drinking” masks full-blown alcohol use disorder compounded by loneliness.
(Approved, 1945) — A writer’s lost weekend becomes a nightmarish descent into alcohol dependence. One of cinema’s earliest portrayals of addiction as disease.
(R, 2020) — A grieving former basketball star channels his pain into coaching while battling binge drinking and depression.
(R, 2022) — A small-town single mother squanders her lottery winnings in self-destruction before seeking redemption.
(R, 1994) — A mother’s secret binge drinking threatens her marriage and family as she begins a painful journey toward sobriety and trust.
COCAINE / STIMULANTS
(R, 1988) — A real-estate agent in denial about his cocaine addiction checks into rehab under false pretenses and unexpectedly begins genuine recovery.
(R, 2006) — A devoted teacher hides an addiction to cocaine that threatens his career and ideals.
HEROIN / OPIOIDS
(R, 2018) — A father struggles to save his son from meth and opioid addiction, depicting relapse, hope, and unconditional love.
(R, 2018) — A mother’s faith is tested when her son returns home in fragile recovery from opioid addiction.
(R, 1998) — Supermodel Gia Carangi’s glamorous life unravels through heroin addiction, trauma, and loneliness.
(R, 2020) — A mother helps her daughter endure four days of detox to qualify for medication-assisted treatment, capturing the agony of relapse cycles.
(R, 1996) — A group of friends in Edinburgh navigate the euphoric highs and grim consequences of heroin addiction and relapse.
POLYDRUG USE / MIXED ADDICTIONS
(PG-13, 2000) — A hard-drinking journalist enters court-mandated rehab and learns about denial, self-destruction, and community.
(R, 2018) — After a near-fatal drunk driving accident leaves him paralyzed, a man confronts his addiction and trauma through art and 12-step recovery.
(R, 2008) — A woman's return home for her sister’s wedding reopens old wounds of guilt and relapse in a family scarred by substance misuse.
(R, 2000) — Four characters fall into addiction to amphetamines and heroin, illustrating obsession, delusion, and psychological collapse.
BEHAVIORAL PROCESS ADDICTIONS
(R, 2013) — A group of people recovering from sex addiction form a support network, exploring shame, intimacy, and relapse in behavioral addiction recovery.