Top Substance Abuse Movies & TV Shows

Cast

Ethan Hawke

Robert Sean Leonard

Uma Thurman

Tape (2001)

6.9 249 votes

Genre: Drama

Country: United States of America

Duration: 87 min.

Audience: R

Story: Jon, a first-time filmmaker, finds himself in Lansing, Michigan to present his film at a local film festival. Vince, his high school friend who is now a volunteer fireman and small-time drug dealer, also visits the town to support Jon on his big day, or so it seems. After a raucous hello and much backslapping, it appears that there is an undercurrent of tension in the air.

Plot: drug dealer, virgin, high school, jealousy, rape, michigan, love triangle, alcohol, ...

Bookie (2023) TV Show

6.9 59 votes

Genre: Comedy

Country: United States of America

Seasons: 2

Episodes: 16

Audience: TV-MA

Story: A veteran bookie struggles to survive the impending legalization of sports gambling, increasingly unstable clients, family, co-workers, and a lifestyle that bounces him around every corner of Los Angeles, high and low.

Plot: comedian, drug use, los angeles, california, bookie, sports gambling, best friends, muscle

Cast

Denzel Washington

Don Cheadle

Kelly Reilly

John Goodman

Flight (2012)

6.9 6.5K votes

Genre: Drama

Country: United States of America

Duration: 138 min.

Audience: R

Story: Commercial airline pilot Whip Whitaker has a problem with drugs and alcohol, though so far he's managed to complete his flights safely. His luck runs out when a disastrous mechanical malfunction sends his plane hurtling toward the ground. Whip pulls off a miraculous crash-landing that results in only six lives lost. Shaken to the core, Whip vows to get sober -- but when the crash investigation exposes his addiction, he finds himself in an even worse situation.

Plot: airplane, confession, investigation, pilot, emergency landing, flight, alcoholism, f word, ...

Cast

Jake Gyllenhaal

Naomi Watts

Chris Cooper

Judah Lewis

Demolition (2016)

6.8 2.5K votes

Genre: Comedy, Drama

Country: United States of America

Duration: 101 min.

Audience: R

Story: An emotionally desperate investment banker finds hope through a woman he meets.

Plot: infidelity, new york city, loss of loved one, pregnancy, dark comedy, carousel, father-in-law, car crash, ...

Cast

Jennifer Aniston

Jason Sudeikis

Emma Roberts

Will Poulter

We're the Millers (2013)

6.8 9.5K votes

Genre: Comedy, Crime

Country: United Kingdom, United States of America

Duration: 110 min.

Audience: R

Story: A veteran pot dealer creates a fake family as part of his plan to move a huge shipment of weed into the U.S. from Mexico.

Plot: drug dealer, drug smuggling, fireworks, camping, denver, colorado, carnival, witness protection, ...

Place: mexico

Berlin Calling (2008)

6.8 365 votes

Genre: Comedy, Drama, Music

Country: Germany

Duration: 105 min.

Story: A man tours clubs around the globe with his manager and girlfriend. On the eve of their largest album release he is admitted to a psychiatric clinic after overdosing at a gig.

Plot: drug abuse, techno, drugs, psychiatry

Cast

Sarah Michelle Gellar

Ryan Phillippe

Reese Witherspoon

Selma Blair

Cruel Intentions (1999)

6.8 3.6K votes

Genre: Drama, Romance

Country: United States of America

Duration: 97 min.

Audience: R

Story: Slaking a thirst for dangerous games, Kathryn challenges her stepbrother, Sebastian, to deflower their headmaster's daughter before the summer ends. If he succeeds, the prize is the chance to bed Kathryn. But if he loses, Kathryn will claim his most prized possession.

Plot: bet, virgin, drug abuse, sibling relationship, based on novel or book, sexual obsession, upper class, cynic, ...

Cast

Eric Bana

Vince Colosimo

Simon Lyndon

David Field

Chopper (2000)

6.8 423 votes

Genre: Crime, Drama, Thriller

Country: Australia

Duration: 94 min.

Audience: R

Story: The true and infamous story of Australia's notorious criminal Mark 'Chopper' Read and his years of crime, interest in violence, drugs and prostitutes.

Plot: prison, prostitute, tattoo, based on novel or book, kidnapping, gangster, delinquent, nightclub, ...

Place: australia

Winter's Bone (2010)

6.8 2.0K votes

Genre: Drama, Mystery

Country: United States of America

Duration: 101 min.

Audience: R

Story: After discovering her father put their house up for his bail bond and then disappeared, 17-year-old Ree Dolly must confront the local criminal underworld and the harsh Ozark wilderness in order to to track down her father and save her family.

Style: slow burn

Plot: sheriff, based on novel or book, missouri, suspicion, cover-up, teenage girl, poverty, struggle for survival, ...

Cast

Michael Douglas

Kathleen Turner

Danny DeVito

Zack Norman

Romancing the Stone (1984)

6.8 2.1K votes

Genre: Action, Adventure, Comedy

Country: United States of America

Duration: 106 min.

Audience: PG

Story: Though she can spin wild tales of passionate romance, novelist Joan Wilder has no life of her own. Then one day adventure comes her way in the form of a mysterious package. It turns out that the parcel is the ransom she'll need to free her abducted sister, so Joan flies to South America to hand it over. But she gets on the wrong bus and winds up hopelessly stranded in the jungle.

Style: romantic

Plot: airplane, smuggling (contraband), chase, kidnapping, crocodile, anti hero, treasure hunt, treasure map, ...

Place: south america, colombia

A Serious Man (2009)

6.7 2.4K votes

Genre: Comedy, Drama

Country: United States of America, United Kingdom

Duration: 106 min.

Audience: R

Story: It is 1967, and Larry Gopnik, a physics professor at a quiet Midwestern university, has just been informed by his wife Judith that she is leaving him. She has fallen in love with one of his more pompous acquaintances Sy Ableman.

Plot: dreams, midlife crisis, professor, minnesota, dark comedy, rabbi, bar mitzvah, marijuana, ...

Time: 1960s

Cast

Jean-Luc Couchard

Mu00e9lanie Laurent

Franu00e7ois Damiens

Marion Cotillard

Dikkenek (2006)

6.7 728 votes

Genre: Comedy

Country: Belgium, France

Duration: 84 min.

Story: Jean-Claude is a loud-mouthed, know-it-all and full time boor who is best friends with Stef, a self-styled lady killer who would do better with the fairer sex if he could work up the ambition to wake up in the morning. Stef has decided that he may need some help in finding the woman of his dreams, and embracing loyalty rather than logic he turns to Jean-Claude for advice.

Plot: pig, photographer, flirt, loser, male friendship, beer, ladies' man, crook, ...

Place: belgium

Cast

Nou00e9e Abita

Ju00e9ru00e9mie Renier

Marie Denarnaud

Muriel Combeau

Slalom (2020)

6.7 133 votes

Genre: Drama

Country: Belgium, France

Duration: 92 min.

Audience: 18

Story: 15 year-old Lyz, a high school student in the French Alps, has been accepted to a highly selective ski club whose aim is to train future professional athletes. Taking a chance on his new recruit, Fred, ex-champion turned coach, decides to make Lyz his shining star regardless of her lack of experience. Under his influence, Lyz will have to endure more than the physical and emotional pressure of the training. Will Lyz’s determination help her escape his grip?

Plot: sexual abuse, alcohol, drug use, snow skiing

Cast

Renu00e9e Zellweger

Jessie Buckley

Finn Wittrock

Rufus Sewell

Judy (2019)

6.7 1.3K votes

Genre: Drama, History, Music

Country: United Kingdom

Duration: 118 min.

Audience: PG-13

Story: Thirty years after starring in 'The Wizard of Oz', beloved actress and singer Judy Garland arrives in London to perform sold-out shows at the Talk of the Town nightclub. While there, she reminisces with friends and fans and begins a whirlwind romance with musician Mickey Deans, her soon-to-be fifth husband.

Plot: london, england, drug abuse, drug addiction, biography, addiction, based on true story, celebrity, ...

Time: 1960s

Cast

Papangkorn Lerkchaleampote

Chutavuth Pattarakampol

Oabnithi Wiwattanawarang

Chayanit Chansangavej

The Stranded (2019) TV Show

6.7 65 votes

Genre: Action, Drama, Mystery

Country: Thailand

Seasons: 1

Episodes: 7

Audience: TV-MA

Story: Trapped on an island destroyed by a tsunami, the students of an elite school try to hold on to hope. But mysterious forces seem to work against them.

Plot: love triangle, suicide, jealousy, amnesia, island, investigation, friendship, high school, ...

Cast

Marisa Abela

Jack O'Connell

Eddie Marsan

Lesley Manville

Back to Black (2024)

6.7 724 votes

Genre: Drama, History, Music

Country: United Kingdom, United States of America

Duration: 122 min.

Audience: R

Story: The extraordinary story of Amy Winehouse’s early rise to fame from her early days in Camden through the making of her groundbreaking album, Back to Black that catapulted Winehouse to global fame. Told through Amy’s eyes and inspired by her deeply personal lyrics, the film explores and embraces the many layers of the iconic artist and the tumultuous love story at the center of one of the most legendary albums of all time.

Plot: biography, addiction, based on true story, alcoholism, mental illness, singer-songwriter, substance abuse, alcohol problems, ...

Time: 1980s, 1990s, 2000s, ...

Cast

Martin Lawrence

Will Smith

Jordi Mollu00e0

Gabrielle Union

Bad Boys II (2003)

6.7 6.0K votes

Genre: Action, Comedy, Crime

Country: United States of America

Duration: 146 min.

Audience: R

Story: Detectives Marcus Burnett and Mike Lowrey of the Miami Narcotics Task Force are tasked with stopping the flow of the drug Ecstasy into Miami. They track the drugs to the whacked-out Cuban drug lord Johnny Tapia, who is also involved in a bloody war with Russian and Haitian mobsters. If that isn't bad enough, there's tension between the two detectives when Marcus discovers that playboy Mike is secretly romancing Marcus’ sister, Syd.

Style: absurd

Plot: drug smuggling, miami, florida, undercover agent, ku klux klan, kidnapping, money laundering, mexican standoff, ...

Place: cuba

Cast

Seth Rogen

James Franco

Gary Cole

Danny McBride

Pineapple Express (2008)

6.6 4.2K votes

Genre: Action, Comedy, Crime

Country: United States of America

Duration: 112 min.

Audience: R

Story: A stoner and his dealer are forced to go on the run from the police after the pothead witnesses a cop commit a murder.

Plot: smoking, witness, cannabis, marijuana, stoner, roach, painting toenails, radio call in show, ...

Cast

Cheech Marin

Tommy Chong

Strother Martin

Edie Adams

Up in Smoke (1978)

6.6 639 votes

Genre: Adventure, Comedy

Country: United States of America

Duration: 86 min.

Audience: R

Story: An unemployed pot-smoking slacker and amateur drummer, Anthony Stoner ditches his strict parents and hits the road, eventually meeting kindred spirit Pedro de Pacas. While the drug-ingesting duo is soon arrested for possession of marijuana, Anthony and Pedro get released on a technicality, allowing them to continue their many misadventures and ultimately compete in a rock band contest, where they perform the raucous tune "Earache My Eye."

Plot: joint, drug trafficking, smoking, ecstasy, drug mule, friendship bracelet, marijuana, drugs, ...