10 Great Films About Addiction

In Half Nelson, Ryan Gosling stars as Dan, a high school history teacher who spends much of his free time abusing cocaine in order to combat his fractured emotional state. One day, he's caught using by one of his students (Shareeka Epps), and the two end up forming an unlikely friendship based on their equally fraught personal lives.

Throughout the course of the film, Dan and Drey attempt to help each other move past their troubles, but only find themselves pushed further into the lives they want to escape.

Sporting an unsettling Oscar-nominated performance from Ryan Gosling, Half Nelson is all about loneliness and loss, and how everyone deals with their inner turmoil differently - whether they're a seemingly all-together teacher or a student with a fractured family life.

Dark and menacing, Half Nelson is also hopeful and eye-opening, and a perfect example of how you never know what's going on in someone else's life.