10 Great Films About Addiction
2. Leaving Las Vegas (1995)
After losing everything - his job, family and friends - screenwriter Ben (Nicolas Cage) decides to drive to Las Vegas and drink himself to death. Whilst there, he befriends prostitute Sera (Elisabeth Shue) and the two decide to spend time together, but not get in the way of each other's life choices.
Leaving Las Vegas is a bleak and unrelenting portrait of alcoholism, acceptance and self-destruction, and Nic Cage gives a career-defining, Oscar-winning performance as a man lost to his pain and unable to accept help. Ben is set in his ways, and it becomes increasingly clear over the course of the movie that he's never going to stop drinking.
Far from a happy or uplifting film, Leaving Las Vegas does have some moments of genuine heart, especially when it reaches its heart-wrenching but inspired conclusion.