Love & Mercy

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Love & Mercy (2015)

The Music and Mystery of Brian Wilson

Brian and Melinda Wilson with Biopic Cast

This movie “is a loving tribute to the Beach Boys and the man responsible for their distinctive sound, but it goes to deeper and stranger places than most movies of its kind.”

There’s a theory of negative alchemy that posits that adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) can turn gold into lead.  In Brian Wilson’s case perhaps it was turning platinum into gold.  What we know about Wilson is that his verbally and physically abusive father (and perhaps an alcoholic mother) may have set the stage for his later mental deterioration that was also related to his substance abuse as a young adult.

Love & Mercy is an engrossing look at mental illness, creativity and amazing music.

NY Times Review of Love & Mercy.

Black Swan (2010)

Black Swan was hard to watch. It is very dark and it is sometimes hard to relate to the characters who seem stereotypical. I suppose one would need to read "Dancing on my grave : an autobiography" by Gelsey Kirkland to judge. It's a "must see" but not an altogether pleasant experience.


See these two excellent reviews. The Movie Slut's is shorter and perhaps more helpful:

Manola Dargis NY Times Review: On Point, On Top, In Pain

Movie Slut Review: Black Swan: Deadly Dancing

Greenberg (2009)

From NetFlix: At a crossroads in his life in New York, Roger Greenberg (Ben Stiller) takes some time to figure things out and travels to Los Angeles, where he house-sits for his brother and forges an unlikely bond with his brother's assistant, Florence (Greta Gerwig). Acclaimed director Noah Baumbach's (The Squid and the Whale, Margot at the Wedding) finely observed relationship comedy also stars Jennifer Jason Leigh and Rhys Ifans.  2010  117 minutes


The Movie Slut's review says it all.  For her other reviews click "Movie Slut."
Here's what we know about Roger Greenberg.
+ He's just been released from a mental hospital.
+ He functions — sort of — on a cocktail of pills.
+ He lives in New York, but is house-sitting in Southern California.
+ His college rock band was about to sign a record deal when he backed out.
+ He doesn't know the name of his best friend's son.
+ At the moment, he's busy doing nothing except writing letters of complaint to Starbucks and American Airlines, a pet taxi and Mayor Bloomberg.
And in this eponymous movie, he's played by Ben Stiller, who's superb as a 40-year-old narcissistic, paranoid, anxiety-riven, socially inept Peter Pan.
Greenberg, the man and the movie, are both sad and funny. Movie-goers will laugh, not at him or with him — he's not laughing — but because we see something of ourselves in this lost soul, and because we know that at least some of his nuttiness is a sane reaction to an insane world.

DJE:  I'm not sure of Greenberg's exact DSM diagnoses, but they include OCD, anxiety, narcissism and others.  I agree with the Movie Slut"  worth seeing.

Rachel Getting Married (2008)

Dancing with Shiva

This is a dark engrossing film that is superbly crafted, but sometimes uncomfortable to watch.

From Netflix: "Longstanding family conflicts resurface when drama queen Kym (Anne Hathaway, in her first Oscar-nominated role), a former model who's been in and out of rehab for 10 years, returns to her parents' home just before her sister Rachel's (Rosemarie DeWitt) wedding. Debra Winger co-stars as the girls' emotionally distant mother in director Jonathan Demme's critically acclaimed portrait of family angst and unrest." 2008, 1 hr 53 minutes Trailer.

A.O. Scott's NY Times Review.

Ward 6 (2009)

Netflix: "This unconventional drama, which employs a nonfiction filmmaking style, chronicles the peculiar case of Dr. Ragin (Vladimir Ilyin), the head of a mental hospital who irritates his subordinates and winds up being committed as a patient in his own facility. Based on a story by famed Russian author Anton Chekhov, this fascinating faux documentary was filmed on location in a functioning mental institution." 2009 83 minutes

Variety Review:

NY Times Review 27 Nov. 2009

Note: Film opening in NY 11/27/09

Link to short story (full text).

The Informant! (2009)

This is a strange movie, both funny and sad. It deals with corporate greed and an executive with serious mental problems; most likely bipolar illness. Matt Damon plays it brilliantly.

The reviews do not address the mental illness theme. Mark Whitacre is a complex, maddening individual and it is difficult to not get seriously annoyed by his antics. Yet, I found this film fascinating. See Trailer. (DJE)

Our favorite critic of our, "The Movie Slut" sent us these comments:
" I had a strange reaction to The Informant! For the first half, I was completely thrown off by the music, which was very slapstick and didn't seem to go with what was happening on the screen. And then there were Whitacre's internal monologues, which I thought were providing some insight into the movie but turned out to just be the ramblings thoughts of a person with ADHD. I thought the movie came together about halfway through. Damon's character reminded me of Blagojevich. They both have this twisted way of looking at the world from purely their own viewpoint and seem incapable of thinking they have badly messed-up.

Anyway, here's what the Movie Slut wrote about The Informant! (Not my exclamation point)
Much has been made of the low-rent rug perched atop Matt Damon's head in The Informant!, the new flick in which he stars as F.B.I. whistle-blower Mark Whitacre. What's a gazillion times more interesting is this question: What the freaking heck is going on inside Whitacre's head?
Is he bipolar? Does he have Attention Deficit Disorder? Is he what we used to call a liar, liar pants on fire?
Expect an amusement park whip of a movie in which you're shot in and out of the dark. If you have a high tolerance for confusion, you'll be happy waiting until the movie reveals its hand. If not, you might throw up your hands in disgust.
The Movie Slut was put off by the 1950s look of the movie, which is set in the 1990s. And then there was the music. She thinks it was working too hard — signaling the audience that, 'Hey, director Steven Soderbergh is worried you might not find this funny, hence the slapstick soundtrack.'
The Movie Slut also suggests a long, hard look at Whitacre's wife Ginger. Talk about an enabler! (This is really where the exclamation point belongs.)"

Boy Interrupted (2008)

Geoffrey Gilmore, Sundance Festival: Boy Interrupted is a film that raises questions. It asks how a young boy can end his life at the tender age of 15. It struggles to find answers about what kind of family he had and the life he led. By its very nature, it is a naked display of its filmmaker's personal life at its most revealing and perhaps disturbing. How can a mother, we may ask, make a film about the death of her son? What defines this film as a remarkably unique and truth-telling achievement is the way it explores how filmmaking can create closure for its creators as well as its audience.

12/7/13:  Finally got to see this documentary.  It was produced, filmed and directed by the parents of this 15 yo boy who committed suicide.  They are both filmmakers.  Their son purportedly had Bipolar Disease. His paternal uncle committed suicide at age 21. It's an ineffably depressing film, but worth viewing.  I think it's amazing that the parents of this boy felt strongly about making their story accessible. 

Suddenly Last Summer (1959)

From Netflix: In Tennessee Williams's tale of sexual repression set in 1937 New Orleans, rich widow Mrs. Venable (Katharine Hepburn) is distraught over the death of her son Sebastian during his vacation to Europe, where the two had traveled together every summer. This time, Sebastian had taken his cousin Catherine (Elizabeth Taylor), who appears to go mad the day Sebastian dies. Dr. Cukrowicz (Montgomery Clift) is called in to assess her mental state. 1959, 113 minutes
Awards:
1960 Academy Award®: Best Actress nominee: Katharine Hepburn
1960 Academy Award®: Best Actress nominee: Elizabeth Taylor
1960 Academy Award®: Best Art Direction Black and White nominee
1960 Golden Globe Awards: Best Actress in a Motion Picture (Drama)
1960 Golden Globe Awards: Best Actress in a Motion Picture (Drama)

Suggested by Charles Katz

The Soloist (2009)

This movie opened in April 2009. Won't be out on DVD for a number of months. Based on the book by Steve Lopez.
Official Web Site.

When reporter Steve Lopez (Robert Downey Jr.) spies the musically gifted but mentally ill Nathaniel Ayers (Jamie Foxx) playing his violin inside Los Angeles's 2nd Street Tunnel, he never imagines he'll be helping him land a gig at the Walt Disney Concert Hall. But the pair's unlikely friendship takes both of their lives in new directions. Joe Wright directs this drama based on a series of columns that originally ran in the Los Angeles Times. 2009, 109 minutes

Fairly faithful to the book. This is a fine movie that engages the viewers. Highly recommended. A "must-see."

Shine

A riveting profile of Australian keyboard virtuoso David Helfgott (Geoffrey Rush) and his ultimate triumph over a domineering, abusive father (Armin Mueller-Stahl); schizophrenia; and an obsession with the all but unplayable Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto No. 3. Sir John Gielgud, superb as ever, plays Helfgott's tutor. Richly deserved Oscars went to Rush (Best Actor) and to Mueller-Stahl for his supporting turn. 106 minutes

Review