Boys on Film 24: Happy Endings (2024)

Looking: The Movie

Patrick returns to San Francisco for the first time in almost a year to celebrate a momentous event with his old friends. In the process, he must face the unresolved relationships he left behind and make difficult choices about what’s important to him.

Ex Machina

Caleb, a coder at the world's largest internet company, wins a competition to spend a week at a private mountain retreat belonging to Nathan, the reclusive CEO of the company. But when Caleb arrives at the remote location he finds that he will have to participate in a strange and fascinating experiment in which he must interact with the world's first true artificial intelligence, housed in the body of a beautiful robot girl.

Oppenheimer

The story of J. Robert Oppenheimer's role in the development of the atomic bomb during World War II.

Inside Out

When 11-year-old Riley moves to a new city, her Emotions team up to help her through the transition. Joy, Fear, Anger, Disgust and Sadness work together, but when Joy and Sadness get lost, they must journey through unfamiliar places to get back home.

Shutter Island

World War II soldier-turned-U.S. Marshal Teddy Daniels investigates the disappearance of a patient from a hospital for the criminally insane, but his efforts are compromised by troubling visions and a mysterious doctor.

PK

A stranger in the city asks questions no one has asked before. Known only by his initials, the man's innocent questions and childlike curiosity take him on a journey of love, laughter and letting go.

Spider-Man: No Way Home

Peter Parker is unmasked and no longer able to separate his normal life from the high-stakes of being a super-hero. When he asks for help from Doctor Strange the stakes become even more dangerous, forcing him to discover what it truly means to be Spider-Man.

Avatar

In the 22nd century, a paraplegic Marine is dispatched to the moon Pandora on a unique mission, but becomes torn between following orders and protecting an alien civilization.

Titanic

101-year-old Rose DeWitt Bukater tells the story of her life aboard the Titanic, 84 years later. A young Rose boards the ship with her mother and fiancé. Meanwhile, Jack Dawson and Fabrizio De Rossi win third-class tickets aboard the ship. Rose tells the whole story from Titanic's departure through to its death—on its first and last voyage—on April 15, 1912.

Deadpool

The origin story of former Special Forces operative turned mercenary Wade Wilson, who, after being subjected to a rogue experiment that leaves him with accelerated healing powers, adopts the alter ego Deadpool. Armed with his new abilities and a dark, twisted sense of humor, Deadpool hunts down the man who nearly destroyed his life.

Joker

During the 1980s, a failed stand-up comedian is driven insane and turns to a life of crime and chaos in Gotham City while becoming an infamous psychopathic crime figure.

John Wick

Ex-hitman John Wick comes out of retirement to track down the gangsters that took everything from him.

12 Angry Men

The defense and the prosecution have rested and the jury is filing into the jury room to decide if a young Spanish-American is guilty or innocent of murdering his father. What begins as an open and shut case soon becomes a mini-drama of each of the jurors' prejudices and preconceptions about the trial, the accused, and each other.

Inception

Cobb, a skilled thief who commits corporate espionage by infiltrating the subconscious of his targets is offered a chance to regain his old life as payment for a task considered to be impossible: "inception", the implantation of another person's idea into a target's subconscious.

WALL·E

What if mankind had to leave Earth and somebody forgot to turn the last robot off? After hundreds of years doing what he was built for, WALL•E discovers a new purpose in life when he meets a sleek search robot named EVE. EVE comes to realize that WALL•E has inadvertently stumbled upon the key to the planet's future, and races back to space to report to the humans. Meanwhile, WALL•E chases EVE across the galaxy and sets into motion one of the most imaginative adventures ever brought to the big screen.

Blue Beetle

Recent college grad Jaime Reyes returns home full of aspirations for his future, only to find that home is not quite as he left it. As he searches to find his purpose in the world, fate intervenes when Jaime unexpectedly finds himself in possession of an ancient relic of alien biotechnology: the Scarab.

Forrest Gump

A man with a low IQ has accomplished great things in his life and been present during significant historic events—in each case, far exceeding what anyone imagined he could do. But despite all he has achieved, his one true love eludes him.

Avengers: Endgame

After the devastating events of Avengers: Infinity War, the universe is in ruins due to the efforts of the Mad Titan, Thanos. With the help of remaining allies, the Avengers must assemble once more in order to undo Thanos' actions and restore order to the universe once and for all, no matter what consequences may be in store.

Zack Snyder's Justice League

Determined to ensure Superman's ultimate sacrifice was not in vain, Bruce Wayne aligns forces with Diana Prince with plans to recruit a team of metahumans to protect the world from an approaching threat of catastrophic proportions.

Eden Lake

When a young couple goes to a remote wooded lake for a romantic getaway, their quiet weekend is shattered by an aggressive group of local kids. Rowdiness quickly turns to rage as the teens terrorize the couple in unimaginable ways, and a weekend outing becomes a bloody battle for survival.

Batman Begins

Driven by tragedy, billionaire Bruce Wayne dedicates his life to uncovering and defeating the corruption that plagues his home, Gotham City. Unable to work within the system, he instead creates a new identity, a symbol of fear for the criminal underworld - The Batman.

All Quiet on the Western Front

Paul Baumer and his friends Albert and Muller, egged on by romantic dreams of heroism, voluntarily enlist in the German army. Full of excitement and patriotic fervour, the boys enthusiastically march into a war they believe in. But once on the Western Front, they discover the soul-destroying horror of World War I.

Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation

Ethan and team take on their most impossible mission yet—eradicating 'The Syndicate', an International and highly-skilled rogue organization committed to destroying the IMF.

Back to the Future

Eighties teenager Marty McFly is accidentally sent back in time to 1955, inadvertently disrupting his parents' first meeting and attracting his mother's romantic interest. Marty must repair the damage to history by rekindling his parents' romance and - with the help of his eccentric inventor friend Doc Brown - return to 1985.

Interstellar

The adventures of a group of explorers who make use of a newly discovered wormhole to surpass the limitations on human space travel and conquer the vast distances involved in an interstellar voyage.

Gone Girl

With his wife's disappearance having become the focus of an intense media circus, a man sees the spotlight turned on him when it's suspected that he may not be innocent.

Dune

Paul Atreides, a brilliant and gifted young man born into a great destiny beyond his understanding, must travel to the most dangerous planet in the universe to ensure the future of his family and his people. As malevolent forces explode into conflict over the planet's exclusive supply of the most precious resource in existence-a commodity capable of unlocking humanity's greatest potential-only those who can conquer their fear will survive.

Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn)

Harley Quinn joins forces with a singer, an assassin and a police detective to help a young girl who had a hit placed on her after she stole a rare diamond from a crime lord.

Ready Player One

When the creator of a popular video game system dies, a virtual contest is created to compete for his fortune.

Fight Club

A ticking-time-bomb insomniac and a slippery soap salesman channel primal male aggression into a shocking new form of therapy. Their concept catches on, with underground "fight clubs" forming in every town, until an eccentric gets in the way and ignites an out-of-control spiral toward oblivion.

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse

Struggling to find his place in the world while juggling school and family, Brooklyn teenager Miles Morales is unexpectedly bitten by a radioactive spider and develops unfathomable powers just like the one and only Spider-Man. While wrestling with the implications of his new abilities, Miles discovers a super collider created by the madman Wilson "Kingpin" Fisk, causing others from across the Spider-Verse to be inadvertently transported to his dimension.

Tolkien

England, early 20th century. The future writer and philologist John Ronald Reuel Tolkien (1892-1973) and three of his schoolmates create a strong bond between them as they share the same passion for literature and art, a true fellowship that strengthens as they grow up, but the outbreak of World War I threatens to shatter it.

Gifted

Frank, a single man raising his child prodigy niece Mary, is drawn into a custody battle with his mother.

The Truman Show

An insurance salesman begins to suspect that his whole life is actually some sort of reality TV show.

Cruella

In 1970s London amidst the punk rock revolution, a young grifter named Estella is determined to make a name for herself with her designs. She befriends a pair of young thieves who appreciate her appetite for mischief, and together they are able to build a life for themselves on the London streets. One day, Estella’s flair for fashion catches the eye of the Baroness von Hellman, a fashion legend who is devastatingly chic and terrifyingly haute. But their relationship sets in motion a course of events and revelations that will cause Estella to embrace her wicked side and become the raucous, fashionable and revenge-bent Cruella.

Django Unchained

With the help of a German bounty hunter, a freed slave sets out to rescue his wife from a brutal Mississippi plantation owner.

The Martian

During a manned mission to Mars, Astronaut Mark Watney is presumed dead after a fierce storm and left behind by his crew. But Watney has survived and finds himself stranded and alone on the hostile planet. With only meager supplies, he must draw upon his ingenuity, wit and spirit to subsist and find a way to signal to Earth that he is alive.

Extraction

A hardened gun-for-hire's latest mission becomes a soul-searching race to survive when he's sent into Bangladesh to rescue a drug lord's kidnapped son.

Pulp Fiction

A burger-loving hit man, his philosophical partner, a drug-addled gangster's moll and a washed-up boxer converge in this sprawling, comedic crime caper. Their adventures unfurl in three stories that ingeniously trip back and forth in time.

Black Panther

King T'Challa returns home to the reclusive, technologically advanced African nation of Wakanda to serve as his country's new leader. However, T'Challa soon finds that he is challenged for the throne by factions within his own country as well as without. Using powers reserved to Wakandan kings, T'Challa assumes the Black Panther mantle to join with ex-girlfriend Nakia, the queen-mother, his princess-kid sister, members of the Dora Milaje (the Wakandan 'special forces') and an American secret agent, to prevent Wakanda from being dragged into a world war.

The Wishmakers

Three young gay men arrive in Los Angeles to fulfill their dreams and aspirations, during a summer which will change their lives. In a world of You Tube celebrities, unemployment, downward mobility, and socializing through Facebook, they make a wish in a fountain to find love, fame, and transcendence. Will any of them do it?

Dominant Chord

Country music star Adam has to choose between damaging his career by coming out in the closed-minded world of country music or losing his long-time partner Brian.

Chasing Chasing Amy

CHASING CHASING AMY explores the transformational impact of a ‘90s rom-com on a 12 year old kid from Kansas, coming of age and contending with queer identity. For young Sav Rodgers, the Kevin Smith cult classic, CHASING AMY, became a life raft. As Rodgers examines the film and its making as a cornerstone of LGBTQ+ cinema, he finds himself at a complicated crossroads.

I Know Her

In the afterglow of a seemingly fated hookup, two women realize that perhaps they have a little too much in common.

Kiko's Saints

Kiko, a Japanese illustrator on assignment in France, gets suddenly overwhelmed by a strange new inspiration, while she realizes she's been spying on a gay couple on the beach next to the chapel where she's working. Obsessed by such a vision, she will continue spying on those men and drawing them secretly. These drawings will slowly push her towards an encounter that will change her life and break the barriers she created around her.

The Last Romantics

Two young men share different points of view of the same sexual encounter in a public space.

Tennessee Queer

Religion, politics and gay pride clash in a small Tennessee town when out, proud and living in New York Jason Potts returns home to make life better for the LGBT teenagers.

Girl Night Stand

Katie doesn’t usually sleep with women, but that’s about to change.

Beyond Plain Sight

Ryan is a popular member of his community. He’s charming, helping and a social butterfly but Ryan has a secret.

Like Father

A Jewish New Yorker is bedridden patriarch dying of lung cancer, confesses for the first time to son that he was always attracted to men. Despite his long-lasting marriage and faithfulness to wife.

Neon Skin

Two young men - one sighted, one blind - see the world and their bodies in different ways. Unexpectedly, they find a connection beyond the visual in the collision of taste, touch and sound. The connection is sensual, and within it they each find something new.

Watch Me

David goes about his life unaware that he is being followed by a stranger recording his every move. As the stranger gets closer he sees more of the dark secret that David is hiding from his boyfriend and the world around him.

Killer Friends

Four friends go on a camping trip that one won't be coming back from alive...

Utopia

When two boys from different social backgrounds connect via the internet, they go on an adventure into the suburbs around Paris. Lost among architectural projects from times when the future was still bright, they nourish their own personal utopia.

Stay

When Ash invites his ex-boyfriend on a road trip to the Florida Keys, he doesn't mention that their weekend getaway is actually a dangerous drug deal.

OuT

In this experimental, yet erotic short film we travel through the stages of coming 'OuT' with the mysterious "A".

All About My Mother

Following the tragic death of her teenage son, Manuela travels from Madrid to Barcelona in an attempt to contact the long-estranged father the boy never knew. She reunites with an old friend, an outspoken transgender sex worker, and befriends a troubled actress and a pregnant, HIV-positive nun.

Bad Education

An examination on the effect of Franco-era religious schooling and sexual abuse on the lives of two longtime friends.

Brokeback Mountain

In 1960s Wyoming, two men develop a strong emotional and sexual relationship that endures as a lifelong connection complicating their lives as they get married and start families of their own.

Our Highland Hotel

Ayumi Aizawa is a lonely young man without a family. He works at Forest Hyde Press Hotel as a cleaner. His deceased grandfather Kenzaburo worked at the same hotel. When his grandfather worked at the Forest Hyde Press Hotel, the hotel was well known for its extreme hospitality. Now, the hotel is nothing more than an ordinary hotel. New manager Ryuuya Sawashiro then attempts to bring the hotel back to its glory days.

Heat

Former child star Joe Davis, reduced to living in a cheap Hollywood motel while struggling for acting jobs, is lusted after by nearly every woman he meets, including Jessica Todd, a tightly wound feminist who has recently come out as a lesbian. When Jessica's mother, Sally, an emotionally needy has-been actress, meets Joe, she moves him into her enormous, tacky mansion as her new boy toy and attempts to get him acting work.

I Love You, I Don't

The petite waitress Johnny works and lives in a truck-stop, where she's lonely and longs for love. She develops a crush on the garbage truck driver Krassky, although her sleazy boss Boris warns her that he's gay.

Grande école

Paul and Agnes have been going out for quite a while and Agnes is shocked to learn that he'd rather live with two roommates on campus than move in with her. As soon as he meets one of his roommates, Louis-Anault, Paul's behavior changes - he is attracted to Louis without realizing so himself. Agnes, on the other hand, gets quite jealous and offers a bet: Whoever gets to have Louis-Anault first, wins... If she does, Paul will no longer explore his homosexual desires, if he does - she'll walk away. Meanwhile, Paul meets Mecir, a young Arab worker, who shows him there's more to life than elite colleges...

Sally Leapt Out of a Window Last Night

In 18th-century Ireland, Sally and Eleanor scandalise society by eloping, to escape the fate that their families have planned for them. Based on a true story. Iris Prize nominee.

Sister Sister

This is a psychological film exploring the love story revolving around two beautiful women - Thien Kim and Bao Nhi. Face to face in a game where only one person wins, when the happiness of a small home is about to be swept away by a storm, who will fiercely fight for what they want and who will resign to keep peaceful?

Far More

Adrian Grenier stars as Sean McAllister, a successful fashion designer who hasn't seen his family in years. He returns to his hometown for a painstaking family reunion that will take him back to his past only to rebuild his future.

Wild Tales

Injustice and the demands of the world can cause stress for many people. Some of them, however, explode. This includes a waitress serving a grouchy loan shark, an altercation between two motorists, an ill-fated wedding reception, and a wealthy businessman who tries to buy his family out of trouble.

Ghosts

Nina, an end-of-teenage orphan with mental problems, starts a new job as a garden cleaner when she meets Toni. They fell in love with each other, but soon Toni starts betraying Nina. In the meantime, Francoise is picked up at a psychic department of a Berlin hospital by her husband, Pierre. After seeing Nina, Francoise believes that she has found her kidnapped daughter Marie, but neither Toni nor Pierre believe her. Nina is unsure about what to think...

The Talented Mr. Ripley

Tom Ripley is a calculating young man who believes it's better to be a fake somebody than a real nobody. Opportunity knocks in the form of a wealthy U.S. shipbuilder who hires Tom to travel to Italy to bring back his playboy son, Dickie. Ripley worms his way into the idyllic lives of Dickie and his girlfriend, plunging into a daring scheme of duplicity, lies and murder.

Frida

A biography of artist Frida Kahlo, who channeled the pain of a crippling injury and her tempestuous marriage into her work.

Shortbus

In post-9/11 New York City, an eclectic group of citizens find their lives entangled, personally, romantically, and sexually, at Shortbus, an underground Brooklyn salon infamous for its blend of art, music, politics, and carnality.

Saturday Church

Ulysses is a shy and effeminate boy who finds himself coping with new responsibilities as man of the house after the death of his father. Living alongside his mother, younger brother, and conservative aunt, Ulysses is also struggling with questions about his gender identity. He finds an escape by creating a world of fantasy filled with dance and music. Ulysses' journey takes a turn for the better when he finds a vibrant transgender community.

Breakfast on Pluto

In the 1970s, a young transgender woman called “Kitten” leaves her small Irish town for London in search of love, acceptance, and her long-lost mother.

Way Out

The story of 2 boys, one a swimmer and the other a dancer. The swimmer gets hurt during a mugging and starts to believe that his swim career is over. The dancer, who is deaf, stays by the swimmer's side during his recovery even though the swimmer is having a difficult time dealing with what has happened and is sometimes mean to him. Slowly, the dancer is helping the swimmer get back into the pool.

Two Twenty-Three

An honest and heartfelt confession of a guy. A sharp return to reality.

AYOR

In 1970, during the annual Dutch national commemoration of those fallen in World War II, two men try to make a statement against gay discrimination. In the moments before and after the incident, their doubt, fear and firm belief becomes clear.

The Estrogen Gospel

A young transgender woman takes a hike through the English countryside in an attempt to resolve her spiritual crisis - but an ancient evil strives to ensure that she never completes her journey.

Kiss Me

A late night hook-up leads Shay and Adam to the bedroom. Before long, chit-chat gives way to passion. But something is missing from their interaction – something that is important to Adam, repellent to Shay – and it soon becomes a sticking point.

The First Time

A young man catches the eye of another in a public park. The dance begins, the public toilets beckon. For one of them, this is one of many such encounters. For the other, it's the first time.

Xenia

Strangers in their own birthplace, 16-year-old Danny and 18-year-old Odysseus cross the entire country in search of their Greek father, after their Albanian mother passes away.

Nobody's Boy

A hustler named Oscar encounters both the light and dark of humanity in an alcohol fueled odyssey of sex, love, and death.

Seat Belt

Julio and Damián are a couple that have just adopted smart and shy five year old Andrés. Damián dotes on the boy, his adoption being a life-changing moment for him, while Julio feels somewhat put upon as the bread winner in the family. Soon after, a family tragedy occurs that puts Julio at a cross road, and questioning his parenthood.

Daddy

After the death of his wife, an 80-year-old man checks into the Plaza Hotel to celebrate their first anniversary apart, hiring a male escort to take her place.

Uncle Frank

In 1973, when Frank Bledsoe and his 18-year-old niece Beth take a road trip from Manhattan to Creekville, South Carolina for the family patriarch's funeral, they're unexpectedly joined by Frank's lover Walid.

Requited

Nicolas, a young man in his mid 20s, struggles to decide whether or not to go to the wedding of his best friend from high school, Aaron, who he's always been quietly in love with. The two had a falling out years earlier after Nicolas inexplicably kissed Aaron's girlfriend. Nicolas clings to an idealized image of his former friend, unconsciously sabotaging his own happiness in the process. The film is a realistic slice-of-life that poses the question "How do you get over something you never had?"

Boys Like You

A young man struggles with the boundaries of friendship when he finds himself in an intimate situation

Revolution

A coming-of-age story about Jack, a 16-year old Iranian boy growing up in 1989 Los Angeles. With the 1979 Iranian Revolution a distant memory, the AIDS movement as a backdrop, and a haunting score by Vampire Weekend's Rostam Batmanglij, Jack learns how to stage his own much smaller revolution within the confines of his traditional family.

The In-Between

The story or two men who fall in love and move in together.

Frozen Roads

Balthazar and siblings Christian and Lyla have been friends since childhood. As the trio struggles with coming of age in a rural, conservative Canadian town, they must confront escalating desires for one another that threaten to destroy their delicate bond.

Maybe... Maybe Not

The heterosexual man Axel is thrown out of his girlfriends home for cheating and ends up moving in with a gay man. Axel learns the advantages of living with gay men even though they are attracted to him and when his girlfriend wants him back he must make a tough decision.

To Be or Not to Be

During the Nazi occupation of Poland, an acting troupe becomes embroiled in a Polish soldier's efforts to track down a German spy.

No More We

Boyfriends Hampus and Adrian are in a destructive relationship. When Hampus finally works up the nerve to call it quits, he finds himself relieved. Adrian, however, is not quite ready to say goodbye. Examining the final week of a gay love affair, award-winning short film director David Färdmar begins with the end.

Faces

Ryan meets Nathan and they fall in love over the course of their first date. It's only later, as their relationship progresses, that Ryan starts to wonder: is my boyfriend who I thought he was? Am I who I thought I was? They experience joy and pain together, trying to overcome the painful fear of whether or not you can truly know another person.

Michael Joseph Jason John

This short romantic thriller explores the emotional aftermath of a one-night stand (and the inherent risks of hook-up culture) as a lonely man imagines what life might be like with a mysterious stranger he picks up on the New York City subway.

Louder Than Words

A young musician named Ansel has an unexpected encounter with Niall, an endearing, deaf dancer.

Just Me

Scott gets a visit from Connor which brings his past back to haunt him, but will it change his future?

Night Archives

Diary sketches of a young gigolo of Arab origin who is confronted with experiences and impressions in the big Parisian world that overwhelms and confuses him.

Hibang

A girl tries to regain her memory, and her former friend tries to help her, but not everything is as it seems.

Onegin

Evgeniy Onegin lives in grand style: balls, receptions, theater premieres and other frivolities the capital can offer a young man. But social life has long tired him, so he perceives the news of the illness of his uncle living in the village as an opportunity to escape. However, having reached the estate, Onegin learns about the death of a relative, which, however, does not upset Evgeniy too much. His financial affairs are very sad, and his uncle is rich and has no other heirs. Onegin locks himself in the estate, living in aimless solitude until the owner, who has returned from abroad, appears at the neighboring estate – a young, enthusiastic Vladimir Lenskiy, not yet satiated with life, who introduces Evgeniy to sisters Tatyana and Olga Larin.

La León

Deep in the lush river jungles of Argentina, Alvaro lives a solitary existence fishing and harvesting reeds. What sets him apart from the rest of his village is that he is gay. There are no other gay men in his world, his only means of expression is with the occasional outsider who passes through. Most of these men come via the river taxi El León, whose captain El Turu is a mean man with a homophobic streak and a secret. When illegal loggers appear in the jungle El Turu accuses Alvaro of aiding them, a dispute which leads both men towards confrontation.

Apt Pupil

One day in 1984, Todd Bowden, a brilliant high school boy fascinated by the history of Nazism, stumbles across an old man whose appearance resembles that of Kurt Dussander, a wanted Nazi war criminal. A month later, Todd decides to knock on his door.

Dad... Be and Will Not Disappear

Tinh, a father who tried everything for his only son, Fluke who was suffering from chronic kidney disease from birth. He even gave up his thriving music career as a chef so that he could cook for his children every meal. But he has some secrets that only his wife Tippa and Phakorn, who is a close friend, know.

Service

A struggling family owns a Filipino porn theater where prostitutes conduct their business.

My Pana

Pana is a popular world from Venezuelan slang that means many things: as a noun it refers to a friend, a good person; as an adjective, it’s a positive quality, someone nice, someone friendly and enjoyable. A coming-of-age story, the short My Pana is also a tale of immigration and exile, a portrait of a teenager adapting to a new society with the few tools he knows to survive: his youth, his body and, ultimately, his own resilience. Through the point of view of a teenager we’ll understand the hardships of million of Venezuelans abroad and the consequences of corruption, exile and the fractured soul of a person who was pushed to leave his true life to adapt to a hostile new place.

Siberia and Him

Meek farmhand Sasha and policeman Dima have a fraught relationship. They’re brothers-in-law, travel companions, and⁠—secretly⁠—lovers. Over the course of their journey to visit Sasha’s grandmother, unspoken truths are uttered, intimacy is built, and authenticity is challenged. Although they may be far from the peering eyes of their oppressive society, their relationship teeters on a dangerous precipice.

Music for Bleeding Hearts

In present-day São Paulo, a trio of young hearts are about to break. Ricardo has both a steady boyfriend and a wandering eye for a new coworker. Isabella is taking a break from both her boyfriend and best friend Ricardo. And hopeless romantic Felipe has suddenly found himself caught between the two of them. These three have big dreams, yearning passion, and opinionated acquaintances, but they’re all unprepared for what’s to come from Cupid’s arrows.

The Basketball Diaries

A high school basketball player’s life turns upside down after free-falling into the harrowing world of drug addiction.