11 movies about mental health
Here are 11 of the best movies about mental health ever made. Since 1949, May has been observed as Mental Health Awareness Month. Mental illness impacts millions of families worldwide, and there’s simply no justification for stigma. Read the original piece in Parade.
1. Silver Linings Playbook (2012)
David O. Russell made this Pennsylvania-set masterpiece about two healing hot messes who fall for each other as something of a gift for his son, who has bipolar disorder and OCD.
An astounding blend of huge laughs, painful authenticity and a moving love story, Silver Linings Playbook walks a tightrope thematically and never sets a foot wrong—much to the delight and pleasure of anyone who watches it.
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2. Ordinary People (1980)
Another movie about mental illness, ‘Ordinary People’ was a turning point for the portrayal of psychotherapy in film. The Robert Redford’s drama about an affluent Chicago family reeling from the accidental death of their son tackles tough topics like PTSD and survivor’s guilt.
Major props to Mary Tyler Moore for a genuinely brave performance that throws her signature likability out the window; here she plays a woman who’s seemingly incapable of loving her child, and maybe anyone at all.
3. Melancholia (2011)
The internal black cloud that is depression doesn’t exactly lend itself naturally to the cinematic. Certainly, some films have succeeded in depicting depression on the big screen.
But none so purely and spectacularly as Lars von Trier’s sci-fi drama about two sisters (Kirsten Dunst and Charlotte Gainsbourg), one of whom is about to get married, while a rogue planet named Melancholia is about to collide with Earth, sealing our inevitable doom.
4. Inside Out (2015)
Way more kid-friendly than Melancholia but not one bit less masterful and exquisite, Disney/Pixar’s candy-coloured work about the emotions inside a teenage girl’s head might be the studio’s most relentless tearjerker to date.
And those tears are earned. The bottom line: ‘Inside Out’ enthusiastically reminds us that sadness and pain are an essential part of living a full life, and it does so with more nuance and grace than most live-action prestige dramas aimed solely at grownups.
5. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975)
This movie about mental health is one of only three films in history to win the “Big Five” Oscars (Picture, Director, Actor, Actress, Screenplay).
Miloš Forman’s renowned, mega-gritty and bitterly funny drama set in a mental institution stars Jack Nicholson as a [maybe] unrepentant criminal faking insanity and Louise Fletcher as a steely, heartless and calculating nurse.
An eerie, pitch-black and deeply disturbing film, Cuckoo’s Nest is a study of the institutional process. And broader than that, it’s an exploration of freedom, control and the human mind. It’s lost none of its edge more than four decades later.
6. Gaslight (1940) and Gaslight (1944)
Gaslighting is ghastly and cruel; it’s the psychologically abusive act of manipulating someone into questioning their own sanity. The term is practically synonymous with the 1944 George Cukor picture that won Ingrid Bergman her first of three Academy Awards for her performance of a victimized wife.
A huge hit for MGM, the film was nominated for seven Oscars in total, including nods for Best Picture and Best Supporting Actress for 18-year-old Angela Lansbury in her screen debut.
Did you know the 1944 classic is actually a remake of a 1940 British film (which is even more closely adapted from the play by Patrick Hamilton)? It’s not as well-known, and that’s largely because when MGM bought the remake rights, part of the contract demanded all prints of the first film be destroyed.
7. What’s Eating Gilbert Grape (1993)
Another movie about mental health is Lasse Hallström’s drama. It has Johnny Depp as a young man in small-town Iowa caring for his morbidly obese mother (Darlene Cates) and autistic younger brother (Leonardo DiCaprio).
This marks the first Oscar nomination for DiCaprio, who was widely singled out by critics and audiences as the touching film’s greatest asset.
‘What’s Eating Gilbert Grape’ also stands out for its frank and affecting portrayal of an eating disorder (such a rarity on the big screen). This was Cates’ very first acting role, she was widely praised for her work by critics and her famous co-stars.
8. Lars and the Real Girl (2007)
Now here is a movie on mental health you just want to hug. Ryan Gosling gives one of his most subtle, poignant—and also hilarious—performances to date. He is Lars, a good-natured, lonely introvert with years of baggage and trauma who turns heads in his small town by embarking upon a romantic relationship with a life-sized love doll named Bianca.
Oh, that premise could have gone so many ways, but Lars and the Real Girl is nothing short of, as Roger Ebert put it, “life-affirming.”
The people in Lars’ community play along out of their concern and love for the young man, and ultimately they help Lars develop the tools to reach out for real human connection.
9. Krisha (2016)
One of the most effective horror films of the past decade isn’t technically a horror film; it’s a micro-budget drama about an alcoholic visiting her family for Thanksgiving.
Rarely has a film tackled addiction with such piercing intimacy and visceral force since ‘The Lost Weekend’ won a Best Picture Oscar in 1945.
The might of ‘Krisha’ is all the more remarkable in that writer/director Trey Edward Shults made it for about $30,000 (that’s 1/10,000th the price tag of Avengers: Infinity War) in his parents’ home using his family as actors.
10. A Beautiful Mind (2001)
Winner of four Oscars (Picture, Director, Adapted Screenplay and Supporting Actress), this movie is Ron Howard’s biopic about Nobel Laureate John Nash, who suffered from paranoid schizophrenia.
It leans more heavily on Hollywood conventions than the other films on this list of movies about mental health. But extraordinary performances from Russell Crowe and Jennifer Connelly are more than enough reason to see it.
It takes liberties with Nash’s life story, and in hindsight, it’s debatable whether the Academy made the right call by awarding this Best Picture over ‘Moulin Rouge!’, ‘In the Bedroom’, ‘The Fellowship of the Ring’ and ‘Gosford Park’.
But ‘A Beautiful Mind’ succeeds as a respectful, glossy and handsome tribute to an inspiring public figure.
11. Fight Club (1999)
The last movie about mental health on this list, though it’s far from a perfect representation, David Fincher’s cult classic ‘Fight Club’ does a bit better: a depressed man (Edward Norton) creates Tyler Durden (Brad Pitt) as a coping mechanism.
Dissociative identity disorder, DID, is most commonly a result of child abuse or other significant trauma.