Midnight Express is a 1978 prison drama film directed by Alan Parker and adapted by Oliver Stone from Billy Hayes's 1977 memoir of the same name. The film centers on Hayes, a young American student, who is sent to a Turkish prison for trying to smuggle hashish out of the country. The film's title is prison slang for his escape attempt. The cast also features Irene Miracle, John Hurt, Bo Hopkins, Paul L. Smith and Randy Quaid.
Round Midnight is a 1986 musical drama film directed by Bertrand Tavernier and written by Tavernier and David Rayfiel. It stars Dexter Gordon, with a soundtrack by Herbie Hancock. The title comes from Thelonious Monk's 1943 composition 'Round Midnight, which is featured in this film in a Hancock arrangement.
Jason Edward Mewes is an American actor, comedian, film producer, and podcaster. He is best known for playing Jay, the vocal half of the duo Jay and Silent Bob, in longtime friend Kevin Smith's films.
New Jack City is a 1991 American action crime film based upon an original story and written by Thomas Lee Wright and Barry Michael Cooper, and directed by Mario Van Peebles in his feature film directorial debut. Released in the United States on March 8, 1991, the film stars Wesley Snipes as Nino Brown, a rising drug lord in New York City during the crack epidemic, and Ice-T as Scotty Appleton, a detective who vows to stop Nino's criminal activity by going undercover to work for Nino's gang. Allen Payne, Chris Rock, Judd Nelson, Bill Cobbs, and Van Peebles appear in supporting roles.
Jerry Stahl is an American novelist and screenwriter. His works include the 1995 memoir of addiction Permanent Midnight. A 1998 film adaptation followed with Ben Stiller in the lead role.
The Minus Man is a 1999 thriller film starring Owen Wilson and Janeane Garofalo. It is based on the novel by Lew McCreary, and directed by Hampton Fancher, who also wrote the screenplay. The film centers on a serial killer whom Fancher describes as "a cross between Psycho's Norman Bates, Melville's Billy Budd and Being There's Chauncey Gardner".
The Falcon and the Snowman is a 1985 American spy drama film directed by John Schlesinger. The screenplay by Steven Zaillian is based on the 1979 book The Falcon and the Snowman: A True Story of Friendship and Espionage by Robert Lindsey, and tells the true story of two young American men, Christopher Boyce and Andrew Daulton Lee, who sold US security secrets to the Soviet Union. The film features the song "This Is Not America", just TV written and performed by David Bowie and the Pat Metheny Group.
Leroy Nicholas Barnes was an American crime boss, active in New York City during the 1970s.
Clean and Sober is a 1988 American drama film directed by Glenn Gordon Caron and starring Michael Keaton as a real estate agent struggling with a substance abuse problem. This film was Keaton's first dramatic departure from comedies. The supporting cast includes Kathy Baker, M. Emmet Walsh, Morgan Freeman, Luca Bercovici and Tate Donovan.
28 Days is a 2000 American comedy-drama film directed by Betty Thomas and written by Susannah Grant. Sandra Bullock stars as Gwen Cummings, a newspaper columnist obliged to enter rehabilitation for alcoholism. The film costars Viggo Mortensen, Dominic West, Elizabeth Perkins, Azura Skye, Steve Buscemi, and Diane Ladd.
Brokedown Palace is a 1999 American drama film directed by Jonathan Kaplan, and starring Claire Danes, Kate Beckinsale, Bill Pullman and Lim Kay Tong. It deals with two American friends imprisoned in Thailand for alleged drug smuggling. Its title is taken from a Grateful Dead song written by Jerry Garcia and Robert Hunter from their 1970 album American Beauty.
Junk, known as Smack in the US, is a realistic novel for young adults, written by British author Melvin Burgess and published in 1996 by Andersen in the UK. Set on the streets of Bristol, England, it features two runaway teenagers who join a group of squatters, where they fall into heroin addiction and embrace anarchism. Both critically and commercially, it is the best received of Burgess' novels. Yet it was unusually controversial at first, criticised negatively for its 'how-to' aspect, or its dark realism, or its moral relativism.
The Panic in Needle Park is a 1971 American drama film directed by Jerry Schatzberg and starring Al Pacino and Kitty Winn. The screenplay was written by Joan Didion and John Gregory Dunne, adapted from the 1966 novel by James Mills.
The Basketball Diaries is a 1995 American biographical crime drama film directed by Scott Kalvert and based on an autobiographical novel by the same name written by Jim Carroll. It tells the story of Carroll's teenage years as a promising high school basketball player and writer who develops an addiction to heroin. Distributed by New Line Cinema, The Basketball Diaries stars Leonardo DiCaprio as Carroll, along with Bruno Kirby, Lorraine Bracco, Ernie Hudson, Patrick McGaw, James Madio, Michael Imperioli, and Mark Wahlberg in supporting roles.
Nil by Mouth is a 1997 drama film portraying a family in South East London. It was Gary Oldman's debut as a writer and director, and was produced by Oldman, Douglas Urbanski and Luc Besson. It stars Ray Winstone as Raymond, the abusive husband of Valerie, played by Kathy Burke. The score was composed by Eric Clapton.
La Luna is a 1979 drama film directed by Bernardo Bertolucci from a screenplay co-written with his brother Giuseppe and wife Clare Peploe. The film concerns the troubled life of a teenage boy and his relationship with his parents, including an incestuous relationship with his opera singer mother. It stars Jill Clayburgh, Matthew Barry, Tomas Milian, Fred Gwynne, Veronica Lazăr, and Alida Valli.
Your Friends & Neighbors is a 1998 black comedy film written and directed by Neil LaBute and starring Amy Brenneman, Aaron Eckhart, Catherine Keener, Nastassja Kinski, Jason Patric and Ben Stiller in an ensemble cast. The film was the first to be reviewed on the website Rotten Tomatoes. The film's credit sequences feature music by Apocalyptica. It was a box office flop, with its total earnings below the filming budget.
Where the Day Takes You is a 1992 American drama film directed by Marc Rocco. The film stars Sean Astin, Lara Flynn Boyle, Peter Dobson, Balthazar Getty, Ricki Lake, James LeGros, Dermot Mulroney and Will Smith in his film debut. Its plot follows a group of teenage runaways trying to survive on the streets of Los Angeles. The film was released on September 11, 1992.
Requiem for a Dream is a 2000 American psychological drama film directed by Darren Aronofsky and starring Ellen Burstyn, Jared Leto, Jennifer Connelly, Christopher McDonald, and Marlon Wayans. It is based on the 1978 novel of the same name by Hubert Selby Jr., with whom Aronofsky wrote the screenplay. The film depicts four characters affected by drug addiction and how it alters their physical and emotional states. Their addictions cause them to become imprisoned in a world of delusion and desperation. As the film progresses, each character deteriorates, and their reality is overtaken by delusion, resulting in catastrophe.
Oslo, August 31st is a 2011 Norwegian drama film directed by Joachim Trier. It is the second film, along with Reprise (2006) and The Worst Person in the World (2021), in Trier's "Oslo Trilogy". The film is a homage to, and loosely based on Pierre Drieu La Rochelle's novel Will O' the Wisp (1931) and Louis Malle's feature film The Fire Within (1963).
