As an on again off again alcoholic, I can assure you there are lots of details this movie gets right about late stage alcoholism... and a few BIG ones it misses. One of the worst things to do to an alcoholic is attempt to force sober them up WHEN they are intoxicated. You are just just flirting with fire at that point and it more than likely is going to end up in a physical fight (or screaming match at minimum). I've been in situations where people have taken my booze from me when passed out thinking, "I'm just helping him!" only for me to wake up in a *desperate* state of withdrawal that any hospital would medically detox you from, but since you have nothing to even come down you go through absolute and utter torture (endless shakes, profuse sweating, heart is pumping so fast you feel at all times you're having a heart attack, body temp goes from hot to cold to hot to cold wildly, insomnia to no end, full on hallucinations, twitches that HURT, migraines all while EVERY bad thing you've ever done runs through your head). When I was at my absolute worst I had basically attempted suicide like this only to somehow still be here today... I would start with a drink on a Friday night, which would spill over into Saturday morning and then eventually the whole weekend and then calling out of work the next week until my body couldn't take it. Some jobs would let it slide and I'd use my sick time, others just fired me... You really do fully lose track of time. For me a bender would be waking up in a darkened room only illuminated by my computer monitor, shuffle back over to the desk where stale whiskey or gin still remained from the night before. Pounding down double shots hoping to hell I wouldn't throw up and lose it, and then after a good buzz or drunk is reached, MAYBE watch some TH-cam videos, but ultimately pass back out... This would go on for days. I never liked going out and drinking, I've never been drunk at a bar, I just wanted to be alone and away from the world and slowly end myself. The major issue I have with the film is that it doesn't FULLY show the effects of withdrawal. To be fair it tries to and if they did show it the film would have extended long takes of Ben writhing in pain, instead they cut it down to two scenes and that's about it... There is no way in fucking hell that when I was at my worst I would've had the energy or the balance to go walk the Las Vegas strip or go to restaurants like Ben, that's straight up Hollywood... You become so dizzy and disoriented from having ONLY booze in your stomach day after day after day that it becomes so hard wired into you to find and nothing else. The movie is fantastic, the book is far better to me. I'm glad you mentioned things in the book like Ben only knowing what time it is due to liquor times, that straight up was me at one point. As I type this I have been 70 days sober. I have no idea how long it'll keep going as I am already planning on getting drunk one last time before 2024 (it's December 30th, 2023) as kind of that stupid, "send off" thing... I have no idea. I wish I could drink like normal, get drunk here and there, but my brain is laser focused on the moment it feels the booze buzz ALL it wants is more. Pure lizard brain thinking.
Thank you for typing out that experience, it helps when i understand other manifestations of addiction. I'm 23 and was drinking daily for a year, by May of 2023 I kept running out, eventually had a seizure from the withdrawal, luckily my dad heard me and found me laying on my back choking... I was in the hospital for a couple days and I guess that embarrassing ordeal has kept me sober, my biggest problem is that I feel like I deserve to be able to drink modesty, but it'll make me think about giving up on life and cause me to drink more. my life has been fucked up for a while and my brother died a couple years ago, that traumatic experience put me on a better path in life but made my lows a lot lower
I got 5 pages into assault on Tony's at 5am. But ended up putting the book down to get beer because I was out and the stores just opened. Really hits my cravings.
Cage really has a solid head on his shoulders. Sure he's been through some financial struggles throughout his career, but hes bounced back! With some of these roles he's played, its nice to see that he never plunged into the depths that others have. These types of roles can really mess you up mentally. Christian Bale is another one. Method actors.
The music is really there to show something is completely off between reality and the rationalization and delusions made for example by someone who is in late stage alcoholism, or more generally psychologically in denial even though they act like they know exactly what they're doing. That movie is as amazing as it was sad and depressing.
Just watched the film for the first time tonight, and... wow. A lot of good things were done here, but I can't say I enjoyed it. I think it's fine for movies to be bleak. I think it's fine for movies to not have happy endings. In fact, sometimes the narrative requires it. However, if a filmmaker is going to lean into hopelessness it needs to elevate what we're seeing in some way. It wasn't exactly "dark for the sake of being dark", but it didn't leave me with the feeling that the journey I took with these characters into darkness was worth it. Also, I agree the soundtrack didn't help matters. It was very "Red Shoe Diaries" very "HBO After Dark: Hookers on the Point". I didn't get what purpose the sound design choices were supposed to serve--I didn't get it. Maybe I will some day, but I am happy it was a vehicle for the legend that is Nic Cage and his talented co-star. Edit: Agree about the Oscar acceptance speech as well. I was expecting him to whip out a flask on-stage or something, but we got meh.
The philosophy of pessimism of Arthur Schoepenhauer forms part of the existential crisis, and is the comorbidity aspect that fuels suicidal ideation and alcohol as a means to suicide. Glad that you picked up the human connection aspects & support and enablement. . Movies about bleakness & nihilism are likely to make a comeback with the climate apocalypse & unparalleled inequality
My first crush on elizabeth shue was from karate kid its like everyone forgot she was the cali girl that ralph machio fell for.Remember people over fourty.
I was really impressed by this movie when I first watched it. The main actors did an amazing job. Yet there's stuff in it there are clearly subpar. The cinematography is not that great and the soundtrack? What a boring soundtrack !
I dated this woman who said her brother decided to drink himself to death, and he laid in bed while she went out to get his liquor, and she would come back and clean him up and give him his alcohol. In "Leaving Las Vegas" people succumb to some nasty consequences from their bad behavior, and it is not all about drinking. The Latvian guy is killed because he offends higher ranking mafioso. Elizabeth Shue gets treated like dirt because she is a prostitute, and Nicolas Cage pays with his life because of his alcoholism. I took the theme of this movie to be about people who sell their souls for momentary pleasure, and the price they pay for doing that. It probably takes a certain type of person to like this movie. All that neon starts to look like slime pretty quickly. It's a dark, soulless world, and with a little more looking a person could probably see innumerable people destroying themselves there.
That's not the theme really. It's a tragic love story overall. It's also a true story I believe. The acting is stellar, beautifully done, raw and real. Momentary pleasure?? Drinking yourself to death for months is not that. Sera doesn't do it for pleasure, it's what she knows. Your comment is alot of victim blaming/missing the point really.
![[TH] GEN vs TH | DRX vs FNC - VALORANT Champions 2024 DAY 5](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/EGLDAmaBOhU/mqdefault.jpg)
As an on again off again alcoholic, I can assure you there are lots of details this movie gets right about late stage alcoholism... and a few BIG ones it misses.
One of the worst things to do to an alcoholic is attempt to force sober them up WHEN they are intoxicated. You are just just flirting with fire at that point and it more than likely is going to end up in a physical fight (or screaming match at minimum). I've been in situations where people have taken my booze from me when passed out thinking, "I'm just helping him!" only for me to wake up in a *desperate* state of withdrawal that any hospital would medically detox you from, but since you have nothing to even come down you go through absolute and utter torture (endless shakes, profuse sweating, heart is pumping so fast you feel at all times you're having a heart attack, body temp goes from hot to cold to hot to cold wildly, insomnia to no end, full on hallucinations, twitches that HURT, migraines all while EVERY bad thing you've ever done runs through your head).
When I was at my absolute worst I had basically attempted suicide like this only to somehow still be here today... I would start with a drink on a Friday night, which would spill over into Saturday morning and then eventually the whole weekend and then calling out of work the next week until my body couldn't take it. Some jobs would let it slide and I'd use my sick time, others just fired me... You really do fully lose track of time.
For me a bender would be waking up in a darkened room only illuminated by my computer monitor, shuffle back over to the desk where stale whiskey or gin still remained from the night before. Pounding down double shots hoping to hell I wouldn't throw up and lose it, and then after a good buzz or drunk is reached, MAYBE watch some TH-cam videos, but ultimately pass back out... This would go on for days. I never liked going out and drinking, I've never been drunk at a bar, I just wanted to be alone and away from the world and slowly end myself.
The major issue I have with the film is that it doesn't FULLY show the effects of withdrawal. To be fair it tries to and if they did show it the film would have extended long takes of Ben writhing in pain, instead they cut it down to two scenes and that's about it... There is no way in fucking hell that when I was at my worst I would've had the energy or the balance to go walk the Las Vegas strip or go to restaurants like Ben, that's straight up Hollywood... You become so dizzy and disoriented from having ONLY booze in your stomach day after day after day that it becomes so hard wired into you to find and nothing else.
The movie is fantastic, the book is far better to me. I'm glad you mentioned things in the book like Ben only knowing what time it is due to liquor times, that straight up was me at one point.
As I type this I have been 70 days sober. I have no idea how long it'll keep going as I am already planning on getting drunk one last time before 2024 (it's December 30th, 2023) as kind of that stupid, "send off" thing... I have no idea. I wish I could drink like normal, get drunk here and there, but my brain is laser focused on the moment it feels the booze buzz ALL it wants is more. Pure lizard brain thinking.
Thank you for typing out that experience, it helps when i understand other manifestations of addiction. I'm 23 and was drinking daily for a year, by May of 2023 I kept running out, eventually had a seizure from the withdrawal, luckily my dad heard me and found me laying on my back choking... I was in the hospital for a couple days and I guess that embarrassing ordeal has kept me sober, my biggest problem is that I feel like I deserve to be able to drink modesty, but it'll make me think about giving up on life and cause me to drink more. my life has been fucked up for a while and my brother died a couple years ago, that traumatic experience put me on a better path in life but made my lows a lot lower
10 years but I went through the same thing. I kind of did a leaving Las Vegas with vodka a coke. id didn't eat just coke and vodka.
Expecting you are dead by the time I write this. I truly feel sorry for everyone around you.
I got 5 pages into assault on Tony's at 5am. But ended up putting the book down to get beer because I was out and the stores just opened. Really hits my cravings.
How are you doing?
Cage really has a solid head on his shoulders. Sure he's been through some financial struggles throughout his career, but hes bounced back! With some of these roles he's played, its nice to see that he never plunged into the depths that others have. These types of roles can really mess you up mentally. Christian Bale is another one. Method actors.
The music is really there to show something is completely off between reality and the rationalization and delusions made for example by someone who is in late stage alcoholism, or more generally psychologically in denial even though they act like they know exactly what they're doing.
That movie is as amazing as it was sad and depressing.
Just watched the film for the first time tonight, and... wow. A lot of good things were done here, but I can't say I enjoyed it. I think it's fine for movies to be bleak. I think it's fine for movies to not have happy endings. In fact, sometimes the narrative requires it. However, if a filmmaker is going to lean into hopelessness it needs to elevate what we're seeing in some way. It wasn't exactly "dark for the sake of being dark", but it didn't leave me with the feeling that the journey I took with these characters into darkness was worth it. Also, I agree the soundtrack didn't help matters. It was very "Red Shoe Diaries" very "HBO After Dark: Hookers on the Point". I didn't get what purpose the sound design choices were supposed to serve--I didn't get it. Maybe I will some day, but I am happy it was a vehicle for the legend that is Nic Cage and his talented co-star.
Edit: Agree about the Oscar acceptance speech as well. I was expecting him to whip out a flask on-stage or something, but we got meh.
Your review is honest and strikes a chord a as much as the story itself. Thank you for that.
The philosophy of pessimism of Arthur Schoepenhauer forms part of the existential crisis, and is the comorbidity aspect that fuels suicidal ideation and alcohol as a means to suicide.
Glad that you picked up the human connection aspects & support and enablement. . Movies about bleakness & nihilism are likely to make a comeback with the climate apocalypse & unparalleled inequality
I’m not familiar with Schopenhauer but glad you enjoyed
You need to cover "Vampire's Kiss"
th-cam.com/video/3NoJS1w6I_0/w-d-xo.html
My first crush on elizabeth shue was from karate kid its like everyone forgot she was the cali girl that ralph machio fell for.Remember people over fourty.
I was really impressed by this movie when I first watched it.
The main actors did an amazing job.
Yet there's stuff in it there are clearly subpar.
The cinematography is not that great and the soundtrack? What a boring soundtrack !
I dated this woman who said her brother decided to drink himself to death, and he laid in bed while she went out to get his liquor, and she would come back and clean him up and give him his alcohol. In "Leaving Las Vegas" people succumb to some nasty consequences from their bad behavior, and it is not all about drinking. The Latvian guy is killed because he offends higher ranking mafioso. Elizabeth Shue gets treated like dirt because she is a prostitute, and Nicolas Cage pays with his life because of his alcoholism. I took the theme of this movie to be about people who sell their souls for momentary pleasure, and the price they pay for doing that. It probably takes a certain type of person to like this movie. All that neon starts to look like slime pretty quickly. It's a dark, soulless world, and with a little more looking a person could probably see innumerable people destroying themselves there.
That's not the theme really. It's a tragic love story overall. It's also a true story I believe. The acting is stellar, beautifully done, raw and real. Momentary pleasure?? Drinking yourself to death for months is not that. Sera doesn't do it for pleasure, it's what she knows. Your comment is alot of victim blaming/missing the point really.
Sorry, but common street walkers don't like like two grand a night call girls.
Never read the book but I didn't buy the premise of the movie. Prostitutes don't fall for their johns. Entertaining review
Cut your hair, put on some real clothes.....but most importantly stop thinking you actually have something important to say!
What are “real clothes”?
@@GeothedudeWard Cleaver from "Leave it to Beaver" should be your goal!!
Nice topical reference
@@GeothedudeYou can do better! Be somebody!
@@Geothedude 😂