Film

Gia

A devastating portrait of Gia Carangi, one of the 1970s' most sought-after models, as she rockets to fame and descends into addiction and isolation. Angelina Jolie gives a raw, fearless performance that never exploits its subject's suffering. It's a film about hunger—for recognition, for connection, for escape—and what happens when you find everything you wanted and it still isn't enough. Unflinching and achingly human.

TMDb rating3.6

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you want a character study of a fragile, self-destructive woman told with raw commitment, and you can sit with a performance that carries the whole film on its shoulders.

Skip it if you need a bright, plotted story, since this is a slow, television-sized portrait that lingers in bleak rooms and leans hard on mood over momentum.

What it asks of you: Two hours spent close to one woman's unravelling, with long stretches of repetition and little relief, and scenes that sit in discomfort rather than hurry past.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

Requiem for a Dream2000

A parallel descent into addiction across four lives, equally unflinching about how desire and dependency destroy. Darren Aronofsky's formal inventiveness never lets you look away or feel comfortable.

But The camera work is deliberately disorienting and the tone is relentlessly bleak. There's no catharsis, only the mathematics of ruin.

Requiem for a Dream poster

The Wrestler2008

Another portrait of someone clinging to fame and relevance past its expiration date, starring Mickey Rourke in the performance of his life. It finds unexpected grace in decline without ever letting you forget the cost.

But It moves slowly and asks you to sit with Randy's small, repetitive humiliations. The ending is quieter than you might want.

The Wrestler poster

Christiane F.1981

A harrowing, semi-autobiographical German film about a 13-year-old heroin addict on the Berlin streets. It has the same unflinching honesty as Gia but focuses on childhood vulnerability to addiction. Genuinely devastating.

But It's difficult to watch a child in this much danger. The film doesn't soften or sentimentalize; it documents. Some scenes are genuinely hard.

Christiane F. poster

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Gia

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Permanent Vacation1981

Both films are about young people in cities searching for meaning and belonging and finding only loneliness, despite having access to everything. Both suggest that the problem isn't circumstance—it's something deeper.

Jarmusch's debut is a dreamy, elliptical portrait of a young drifter in New York trying to find connection and purpose. It shares Gia's mood of beautiful alienation and the inability to fit into the world, but through a completely different lens.

But It's glacially paced and nothing happens. The dialogue is sparse. If you need plot momentum, this will feel like watching paint dry.

Permanent Vacation poster
More like this (6)

Spun2003

A visceral, darkly comic descent into crystal meth addiction in Los Angeles. It uses formal experimentation to convey the fractured, paranoid psychology of addiction. Surprisingly humane underneath the chaos.

But The style can feel gimmicky and the humour might feel inappropriate given the subject matter. It's exhausting to watch.

Spun poster

The Neon Demon2016

An art film about a young model in LA drawn into a world of beauty, cruelty, and cannibalistic competition. It's visually stunning and explores how the modeling industry commodifies and destroys youth.

But It's deliberately artificial and cold. If you want emotional authenticity, this isn't it—it's a fever dream critique, not a portrait.

The Neon Demon poster

The Basketball Diaries1995

Leonardo DiCaprio in a raw performance as a young addict spiraling in New York. It's based on Jim Carroll's memoir and doesn't look away from how addiction damages everyone around you, not just the addict.

But Some of the content is exploitative and the film doesn't always justify how graphic it gets. There's a famous scene many people find gratuitously violent.

The Basketball Diaries poster

Leaving Las Vegas1995

Nicolas Cage won an Oscar for this film about a man deliberately drinking himself to death. It's an unflinching look at self-destruction and the impossibility of love when someone is committed to their own annihilation.

But It's punishing. The film won't offer you the comfort of redemption or even struggle—just slow, deliberate erasure.

Leaving Las Vegas poster

My Own Private Idaho1991

Gus Van Sant's portrait of street hustlers in Seattle includes a young River Phoenix in a heartbreaking performance. It's poetic and strange, about beauty and vulnerability and the cost of survival.

But The narrative is deliberately fragmented and dreamlike. It's more interested in mood and metaphor than plot, which won't satisfy everyone.

My Own Private Idaho poster

Safe1995

Like Gia, Safe is about a woman whose body becomes a site of destruction. Both films refuse easy explanation. Both suggest that sometimes the system itself is the problem, not the person failing within it.

Todd Haynes' unsettling masterpiece about a woman who becomes increasingly allergic to the modern world itself. It's about vulnerability, disappearance, and the impossibility of safety in a contaminated system.

But It's deliberately ambiguous about whether she's actually ill or psychologically unraveling, and that ambiguity never resolves. It's cold and strange and won't give you answers.

Safe poster

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Christiane F.