“The way that life can suck.”

After his older brother passes away, Lee Chandler is forced to return home to care for his 16-year-old nephew. There he is compelled to deal with a tragic past that separated him from his family and the community where he was born and raised.

The drug-induced utopias of four Coney Island residents are shattered when their addictions run deep.

Film Historian Dr. Bruce Isaacs dissects the film and talks about the cast, crew, themes, tone, symbolism, music, and camera style used in the film.

Ben Sanderson, an alcoholic Hollywood screenwriter who lost everything because of his drinking, arrives in Las Vegas to drink himself to death. There, he meets and forms an uneasy friendship and non-interference pact with prostitute Sera.

An alcoholic that lost everything decides to go to Las Vegas to spend his last days. In unexpected circumstances, he literally runs into a prostitute that is just as sad and lonely as himself. The two begin a strange relationship based on codependency. Can a drunk and a whore find true love in the city of sin? Stranger things have happened in Vegas.

Hisako loses her home in Tokyo to Allied bombing. With her husband fighting somewhere in Asia, she and her two children evacuate to a suburb of Kobe, where they share a house with Hisako's cousin, Kyoko. Kobe is bombed and Kyoko is killed. Hisako is forced to take care of Kyoko's two children in addition to her own, but there is not enough food for everyone.

In the final months of World War II, 14-year-old Seita and his sister Setsuko are orphaned when their mother is killed during an air raid in Kobe, Japan. After a falling out with their aunt, they move into an abandoned bomb shelter. With no surviving relatives and their emergency rations depleted, Seita and Setsuko struggle to survive.

A struggling salesman takes custody of his son as he's poised to begin a life-changing professional career.