15 Best Movies About Drugs And Addiction In Cinema History

9. Traffic

Steven Soderbergh strikes again with Traffic, a star-studded thriller that won him the Oscar for Best Director. Both a critical and commercial hit, Traffic is a multi-layered, careering crime epic that zones in on the drug trade from a wide variety of angles, areas and occupations. The film spins a detailed web of a stories across the United States and Mexico, creating distinctively separate characters that remain loosely linked together by the issue of drugs, addiction, and the criminal trade. Benicio del Toro stars as a police officer in Mexico dealing with issues of corruption on the force, Michael Douglas plays a politician declaring war on drugs whilst also having an addict for a daughter, and Don Cheadle stars as a DEA agent who wants to take down drug lord Steven Bauer - ultimately facing interference from his wife Catherine Zeta-Jones. Well-acted, expansive, and explosively entertaining, Traffic sweeps through every corner of the drug trade from corruption to addiction, and remains one of the most invigorating films about narcotics to ever emerge out of Hollywood.