What is it about the cinema that lends itself so well to obsessive characters? You know the ones. Those determined individuals that push themselves and others, beyond all reason, in the single minded pursuit of a specific goal. It's certainly great theater seeing someone fight against the establishment, chase immortality, or strive to better themselves (sometimes at the expense of their own humanity and others' mortality).
Here follows a small collection of films that are not only great in and of themselves, but also as studies of some of the most compellingly fanatical, driven, and inescapably obsessed characters ever committed to celluloid.Addiction films, on the other end, should be thought of as those that deal with characters a chemical, medical need for something or other (alcohol, gambling, etc.). For example, the Philip Seymour Hoffman gambling film Owning Mahowny was scrapped from an earlier version of this list. Enjoy and happy viewing.
