Hello again!
As I have told you guys, I love movie, and TV shows, and I felt it would be fun to write about some of my personal favorite movies that depict mental health in interesting, truthful, or entraining way. The movies listed are in no particular order of likeness.
- Shutter Island (2010)
With Leonardo DI Caprio leading the way, you can’t go wrong! Shutter Island is a wonderful crafted story, led by those amazing good lucks, and charming personality of leo. The story is about a man who is investigating a disappearance at a mental ward in Oaks Bluff MA. While the story takes place at a mental health asylum, the true aspects of why this is a great movie about mental health is really about Leo’s character, and learning more about him and why he really is on this island. It is an excellent way of understanding how come people can completely lose themselves and never gain a part of themselves back, and how sad that can be. I can’t lie because this movie is super dark at the end, but I won’t spoil it for those who have yet to see it.
- A Beautiful Mind (2001)
This movie, based on a true story, highlights the life of John Forbes Nash, Jr. (Russel Crow), a mathematical genus who lived with schizophrenia. The movie beautifully captures the challenges a person with schizophrenia may deal with on a daily baisis, and how scary and debilitating it can be to feel like you are all alone seeing these scary things. This story is interesting because Johns disorder greatly effected his promising career and his personal life with his family.
- It’s Kind of a Funny Story (2010)
I really liked this movie. This film tells the story of 16-year-old Craig (Keir Gilchrist) who checks himself into a psychiatric ward because of his depression and suicidal ideation. While it was not super popular movie when it came out, it depicts in my opinion, an accurate representation of the patients you may see come in and out of inpatient facilities, and how getting support from like minded people can be truly impactful. It also shows off how an inpatient hospital wing is not a scary place and the patients are not portrayed as “mad” or “insane” for once, and rather show it’s a safe place where people who are struggling are in fact getting help, and using humor as a device for relief helps makes the topic of depression and suicide easier to digest.
- What About Bob? (1991)
Bill Murray, Richard Dreyfuss and a pet goldfish, what could go wrong? While Bill Murrays character, Bob, is completely unrelatable to real mental health patients, what is interesting about this movie is the growth Bill Murrays character goes through once he gets out of his home and enjoys the world. I like the portrayal of how someone who is going through a difficult time can and will get better with some support. The other fun result Bill Murrays character Bobs growth is how Richard Dreyfuss’s character eventually becomes catatonic due to Bob becoming loved by Dreyfuss’s family and how maddening it is to Dreyfuss.
- Inside Out (2015)
This amazingly well-done animation personifies the different emotions inside a young person’s mind as they grow and develop into an adult. Characters Joy, Sadness, Anger, Fear and Disgust try to help Riley through her family’s move to San Francisco as Riley is Joyful, sad, angry, fearful and upset about leaving her home, and friends behind. The emotions learn to work together to help Riley process the turmoil of adjusting to her new life. Inside Out is a clever, modern and well-made film that puts mental health into a new context, and shows that even emotions like Sadness, fear, angry and disgust are just as important as being happy and we shouldn’t push those to the side but embrace them from time to time.
Honorable Mentions:
Girl Interrupted, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Silver Linings, Psycho, Split, Melancholia, Still Alice, Black Swan, Memento.