Whos Afraid Of Virginia Woolf? (1966)
The Movie Drinkers: Martha (Elizabeth Taylor) and George (Richard Burton)
How Drunk? They’re both so trollied that they barely even notice they have guests as they use their visitors as pawns in their increasingly violent power struggle.
Convincing? Taylor steals the show as the unstable, impulsive Martha, whose volcanic eruptions are as violent as they are unexpected. No wonder she got the Oscar.
Next Day Regrets: Maybe, though it’s almost like the couple needed this to happen...
Trees Lounge (1996)
The Movie Drinker: Tommy Basilio (Steve Buscemi)
How Drunk? The kind of drunk that turns a man into a living bar stool. He has just lost his girlfriend and his job though, so give the guy a break.
Convincing? Dishevelled and miserable, Buscemi pulls it off admirably.
Next Day Regrets: The relationship with his friend’s teenage daughter might land him in a bit of a pickle...
Barfly (1987)
The Movie Drinker: Henry Chinaski (Mickey Rourke)
How Drunk? So drunk that he insists on buying a round for “all my frieeeeeends”, all the time. His lifestyle basically revolves around drinking and writing – as well as spectacular feuds with Frank Stallone.
Convincing? It’s not exactly a stretch for Rourke, is it?
Next Day Regrets: There is no next day for Henry – he’s too efficient at topping himself up whenever he feels the migraine kicking in.
Leaving Las Vegas (1995)
The Movie Drinker: Ben Sanderson (Nicolas Cage)
How Drunk? So drunk that he dances down the liquor aisle at the supermarket with palpable glee.
Convincing? So much so that we’d have put money on Cage actually being drunk during the shooting of the entire movie.
Next Day Regrets: Do suicidal tendencies count?
The Lost Weekend (1945)
The Movie Drinker: Don Birnam (Ray Milland)
How Drunk? For this movie drinker, “one’s too many and a thousand’s not enough”. He’s even canny enough to hide bottles of alcohol in ceiling lights. We’ll go for ‘extremely’ there, then.
Convincing? Shockingly so, especially as Milland was best known as a romcom actor before losing himself in this Lost Weekend.
Next Day Regrets: Waking up in a straitjacket is sure to instil a few minor pangs of regret.
Hancock (2008)
The Movie Drinker: John Hancock (Will Smith)
How Drunk? Hancock takes the biscuit, zipping around, downing booze by the bucketload, and crashing into just about everything in his path as he attempts to bring down crims. Just think of the city’s bill for damages...
Convincing? Smith may be best known as a clean-cut Hollywood type, but with the help of a little stubble and some tramp chic clothing, he pulls off a convincing 180 degree turn.
Next Day Regrets: Hancock manages to clean up his act, only to find himself confined to leather as a superhero. Bad luck, old bean.
Tombstone (1993)
The Movie Drinker: Doc Holliday (Val Kilmer)
How Drunk? “I have two guns,” slurs Doc, “one for each of ya.” So drunk that he’s seeing double instead of single, and quadruple instead of double. Man, that’s drunk .
Convincing? Red-eyed, pasty complexion, slurry words – we buy it wholesale.
Next Day Regrets: Alcohol and firearms don’t mix. Though to be fair, he probably won’t remember much of it the next day.
The Upside Of Anger (2005)
The Movie Drinker: Terry Ann Wolfmeyer (Joan Allen)
How Drunk? Wasted, thanks to a little (alright, a lot) of Grey Goose.
Convincing? Allen is a force of nature, perfectly capturing Terry’s anger and despair when her husband suddenly ups and leaves.
Next Day Regrets: The film ends with a funeral, so more than likely...
Arthur (1981)
The Movie Drinker: Arthur Bach (Dudley Moore)
How Drunk? The kind of drunk where there’s less blood in your alcohol stream than there is alcohol in your blood stream, ie Arthur’s pished close to every second of every day.
Convincing? He’s the best drunk ever, no question. Russell Brand’s embarassing baby talk doesn’t even come close.
Next Day Regrets: What would that moose say if he’d been alive?
Withnail & I (1987)
The Movie Drinker: Withnail (Richard E Grant)
How Drunk? A volatile and dangerous drunk, Withnail guzzles a concoction of pills and booze that would have most of us seeing pink elephants with machine guns.
Convincing? Hard to believe this was Grant’s debut performance, but he (With)nails the part completely as the slippery, gangly boozer.
Next Day Regrets: Regrets are key to being an artist, so Withnail probably welcomes them.
