A Movie Marathon and a Sad Trend


If the weather didn’t get me down this weekend, the three movies in my unexpected movie marathon sure did. You may already know that when it comes to my viewing pleasures, I’m much more a TV show kind a gal over a movie buff. However, three movies had piqued my interest for some time so, to escape the rain and cold, I hunkered in for the weekend and watched my heart out.

Bingeworthy Sidenote

I also managed to catch an episode or two of the new Netflix series starring Christina Applegate and Linda Cardellini called Dead to Me. Folks, this is a good one – really good. Applegate is doing some of her best work. Dead to Me has the same level of drama and intrigue as Big Little Lies. Let’s just hope that it gets a season two as well. It’s being called a dark comedy. I’m not sure I find it all that funny, but it’s well done! Definitely worth a watch.

Ok, back to my movie marathon…

So, I took in three films that had been on my radar for a while. I liked each one of them, but found the sad, underlying theme of addiction in each storyline to be a shocking reminder of how tragic this epidemic truly is. The first movie I watched was Beautiful Boy starring Steve Carrell.

Beautiful Boy

Based on two best-selling books by father and son, David and Nic Sheff, Beautiful Boy tells the story of Nic Sheff’s nearly lifelong battle with hardcore drug addiction and his father David’s desperate fight to pull him out of it. The story was heart wrenching, but well told. After having watched, I learned that the movie actually softened the severity of Nic’s darkest days. Hard to imagine, because it appeared pretty rough.

The next show in my movie marathon line-up was the Netflix movie The Dirt, which threw back to the good old days of Motley Crue.

The Dirt

I loved it and learned more than I ever wanted to know about the debauchery of 1980s hair bands. I knew these guys were bad, but oh boy! They were worse than I could’ve imagined. I did enjoy learning the pivotal role Nikki Sixx played in forming the band and almost causing its demise as a result of, yet again, a nearly fatal drug habit.

Finally, I watched A Star is Born. Ridiculous that it took me this long, but as they say – better late than never.

A Star is Born

As you might imagine, I thought the movie was great. Gaga and Bradley Cooper were everything everyone had said they would be and, in the end, I was heartbroken that addiction and mental illness took center stage over the amazing talents of the two beautifully portrayed characters. The Grammy’s scene was really hard to watch and I wanted a different ending, plain and simple.

In the End

Three good movies with three eye-opening stories of devastating addiction. Had I not watched them all at once, I don’t think the overwhelming weight of the addiction crisis would have hit me quite as hard as it did. To make matters worse, I topped off the melancholy by watching Adam Sandler’s emotional SNL tribute to Chris Farley – another loss at the hands of drugs and alcohol.

The issues addressed in each of these films are big and scary and, most of all, sad. I’m not sure what else to say other than, I hope it gets better.


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kiki
4 years ago

As I lay on the couch, sick as a dog, I remembered your post about the series Dead to Me. I watched it in one day and LOVED it…kept me from bemoaning my illness all day. Thanks for the recommendation!

Jen
4 years ago

Thanks for the movie picks. Loved A Star Is Born but happy to check out your other recommendations. Yes, drug addiction is real. If we can raticate polio around the world let’s figure out this crisis. Sadly, too much money in it for too many people. The politics of it all!!!

kiki
4 years ago

Oh my! That’s a lot of sadness for one weekend. I would have been curled up in my bed after that marathon. When I watch a sad movie, I need to offset with something funny/romantic/silly. I sobbed during Sandler’s SNL tribute…so hard to watch, especially when it was evident Sandler was having trouble getting through it.