I considered starting a thread related to depictions of cigarette smoking on film and what it means today, but I figured Thank You For Smoking covered that (only villains and Russians). Instead, it occurred to me that I've been taken out of a movie before when it became obvious that an actor portraying a character that is smoking has never smoked a cigarette in their life.
Case in point: Natalie Portman as Mathilda in Leon. Yes I understand she was twelve at the time, but since it was important to establish the character's false sense of maturity the smoking was important. As is, it's completely masked and there's no apparent inhaling, which takes me out of the scene every time. Compare that to, say, Brad Renfro in The Client: that's a kid that looks like he's been smoking for years (for better or for worse).
Which brings me to the title. For the sake of argument, I'm defining decadence as smoking, drinking, and any sort of illegal drug usage (although feel free to add parameters). Too often do actors resort to standard cues to signify drunkenness: laughing, squinting, pointing, stumbling. All of these things are, of course, actual symptons of being drunk, but it's a dead giveaway when an actor is exaggerating from lack of experience (not even talking comedies here, dramas suffer from this as well).
Which brings me to drug usage. Obviously I'm not asking for method acting here, although Robert Downey Jr.'s past certainly informs an element of his choices as Tony Stark and I can buy that Johnny Depp has done everything in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. All I ask is that the actors look comfortable and familiar with their environment. Case in point, Brad Pitt in True Romance: I completely buy him as a stoner.
Illegal drug usage is generally depicted in movies as something characters have to overcome. While I don't smoke anything myself, I do appreciate, for instance, the scene in Going the Distance when Drew Barrymore and Justin Long smoke out, look completely comfortable with it, and the movie moves on and never mentions it again. Compare that Eyes Wide Shut, when Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman smoking out is shot as something scandalous, and even leads to an outrageous confrontation on Kidman's part (smoking made me admit to fantasizing about cheating on you, ahhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!).
As mentioned above, if "good guys" smoke in contemporary movies it has to be pointed out that it's bad for them (even if it takes place in the past ie. The King's Speech). If people drink there's generally absurd consequences. Illegal drug usage is more often than not the focus of the movie if the protagonist partakes (Trainspotting, Requiem for a Dream). Very rarely are these elements of a film simply presented, as often they are used to signify "bad" choices on the part of the characters involved. If that's so, then it's important that said actors refine the way they depict those elements.
So, what are the most authentic depictions of decadence on film, and what are so fake that you can't help but cringe?
