Comedies

American Splendor Favorite

Genre: Drama/Comedy Year: 2003 Rating: R

Actors: Paul Giamatti, Harvey Pekar, Hope Davis

Topics: Depression, Family Dysfunction, Personality Disorder

Very interesting and unique film. Drags a bit at the end, though. Story of Harvey Pekar's life (he's

the "poster child" for the DSM-III according to his wife). Full of characters with quirks

(psychopathology?) who are still functioning in their lives. My favorite is Toby, the self-proclaimed

nerd (pronounced "nyerd") who is autistic. Having worked in a VA hospital, I can attest that the

climate in the file room is right on the mark!

Analyze This Favorite

Genre: Comedy Year: 1999 Rating: R

Actors: Robert DeNiro, Billy Crystal, Lisa Kudrow

Topics: Treatment, Anxiety Disorder

I really liked this movie. The portrayal of mixed anxiety and depression (delayed onset PTSD?) is

terrific. Unfortunately, the movie also demonstrates how not to be an ethical psychiatrist (can you

count the number of ways that he violates confidentiality?), but he still is effective (if you believe

in the therapeutic miracle of sudden insight). The best character in the movie is the loyal goon,

Jelly.  He was great. See this one.

Arsenic and Old Lace

Genre: Comedy Year: 1944 Rating: NR-PG-13

Actors: Cary Grant, Josephine Hull, Jean Adair

Topics: Psychosis

Classic movie with Cary Grant discovering his aunts poison gentleman visitors and his brother

thinks he is Teddy Roosevelt charging up San Juan Hill. [Suggested by Darlene Puck, Cincinnati,

OH]

As Good As It Gets Favorite

Genre: Drama/Comedy Year: 1997 Rating: PG-13

Actors: Jack Nicholson, Greg Kinnear, Helen Hunt

Topics: OCD, Personality Disorder

Academy Award winner for Best Actor and Best Actress.  Jack Nicholson with Obsessive-

Compulsive Disorder, as well as plenty of Axis II. Really great movie.

Beautiful People

Genre: Drama/Comedy Year: 1999 Rating: R

Actors: Thomas Goodridge, Frank Pruti, Tony Peters

Topics: Drugs/Alcohol, "Bosnian syndrome," Family Dysfunction

A black comedy from Britain. Much like a lighter version of "Crash." The intertwining of lives and

various conflicts allow for discussion of biases and "us" versus "them" mentalities. Also includes

reference to "Bosnian syndrome."

Being There

Genre: Comedy Year: 1979 Rating: PG

Actors: Peter Sellers, Shirley MacLaine, Melvyn Douglas

Topics: Personality Disorder

Academy Award winner for Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor.  Very funny and interesting film

about a gardener (Peter Sellers) whose only exposure to the "real world" outside the wall around

the grounds he keeps comes from television. What does it say about our society? Any obvious

diagnosis of the gardener (or us?!)?

Benny & Joon Favorite

Genre: Drama/Comedy Year: 1993 Rating: PG-13

Actors: Johnny Depp, Mary Stuart Masterson, Aidan Quinn

Topics: Schizophrenia, Personality Disorder

Early movie with Johnny Depp who develops a relationship with young woman who is

schizophrenic. Diagnostic considerations for Depp's character? Good portrayal of stresses on

family, as Joon's brother devotes himself to her care.  Cute movie.

Captain Newman, M.D. Favorite

Genre: Drama/Comedy Year: 1963 Rating: NR-PG

Actors: Gregory Peck, Tony Curtis, Angie Dickinson

Topics: Treatment, PTSD

Great older movie with Gregory Peck as the military psychologist during WW II. Highly

recommended.

Cosi

Genre: Comedy Year: 1993 Rating: R

Actors: Ben Mendelsohn, Barry Otto, Toni Collette

Topics: Treatment, Schizophrenia, Impulse Control Disorder

A very well-done Australian comedy about a theater major hired to direct a play with the cast

comprised of psychiatric patients at the local asylum. Includes pyromaniacs and other diagnoses.

Hard to separate patients from staff. [Suggested by Jeff Hill, Marywood University, PA]

Don Juan DeMarco

Genre: Drama/Comedy Year: 1995 Rating: PG-13

Actors: Johnny Depp, Marlon Brando, Faye Dunaway

Topics: Delusional Disorder, Family Dysfunction

Johnny Depp (one of my favorites) believes that he is the great lover, Don Juan. He is treated by

therapist, Marlon Brando, who, as often happens in the movies, is really treated by his patient.

Cute flick.

Ed Wood

Genre: Drama/Comedy Year: 1994 Rating: R

Actors: Johnny Depp, Martin Landau, Sarah Jessica Parker

Topics: Sexual Disorder, Personality Disorder

Academy Award winner for Best Supporting Actor.  Johnny Depp as the quirky movie maker - and

 transvestite.  His friends also have their share of psychopathology. Cute film.

Harold and Maude

Genre: Drama/Comedy Year: 1971 Rating: PG

Actors: Ruth Gordon, Bud Cort, Vivian Pickles

Topics: Depression, Nihilism, Suicide

A rich, 20-year-old man obsessed with death meets an elderly woman at a funeral and develops

his first meaningful relationship. Involves faked suicides, and a real one, but are the characters

actually depressed? [Suggested by Carey Corbett, University of South Florida]

Harvey Favorite

Genre: Comedy Year: 1950 Rating: NR-PG

Actors: James Stewart, Josephine Hull, Peggy Dow

Topics: Psychosis, Drugs/Alcohol, Treatment

Academy Award winner for Best Supporting Actress.  Classic comedy with Jimmy Stewart

hallucinating (?) a six-foot rabbit named Harvey. Consider the portrayal of psychiatry and the

mental asylum and the apparent ease with which one seemed to be able to commit a person. Also,

 one might think Harvey was a result of too much alcohol, but do we actually see Jimmy Stewart

ever drink? Hmmm. My favorite lines are Elwood's quoting his mother: "In this world, Elwood, you

must be oh-so-smart or oh-so-pleasant," and his conclusion, "Well, for years I was smart; I

recommend pleasant." Is it a personality disorder to be too nice, too polite? Ah, if we all were so

afflicted!  Parallels with Peter Sellers in "Being There" and Tom Hanks in "Forrest Gump?"

[Suggested by Joy Szuhay, Clarks Summit, PA]

House of Yes Favorite

Genre: Drama/Comedy Year: 1997 Rating: R

Actors: Parker Posey, Josh Hamilton, Tori Spelling

Topics: Psychosis, Personality Disorder

I loved this movie. Absolutely great, quick dialogue. A young man brings his fiancé home to meet

his family - we learn that she is the very first house guest and it is clear why. The young man's

twin sister believes she is Jackie O and there is a family tradition of reenacting the Kennedy

assassination (with ketchup and pasta - until this night), as well as other family secrets.

I Don't Buy Kisses Anymore

Genre: Drama/Comedy Year: 1992 Rating: PG

Actors: Jason Alexander, Nia Peeples, Lainie Kazan

Topics: Eating Disorder, Ethics

Overweight shoe store salesman is befriended by psychology student, who proceeds to help him

lose weight, and use him, without his knowledge, as a case study for her thesis.

King of Hearts

Genre: Comedy Year: 1966 Rating: NR

Actors: Alan Bates, Pierre Brasseur, Jean-Claude Brialy

Topics: Treatment

French with subtitles. Set in France during World War I. According to the submitter: "The Germans

have set a bomb to go off at 12 midnight and the only people left in the village are the 'crazy'

people in the asylum and a Canadian soldier checking out the village after the Germans had

retreated. Once again, we see the 'who are the crazy ones' theme." [Submitted by Nancy Porter,

Chestnut Hill College, PA]

Matchstick Men Favorite

Genre: Drama/Comedy Year: 2003 Rating: PG-13

Actors: Nicolas Cage, Sam Rockwell, Alison Lohman

Topics: OCD, Treatment, Personality Disorder

Nicholas Cage as the con man with obsessive-compulsive disorder. Very entertaining film.

Consider the accuracy of portrayal (was it "real" OCD or a conversion disorder, for example). 

What about the ethics of the treatment he experienced?

Mumford

Genre: Drama/Comedy Year: 1999 Rating: PG-13

Actors: Loren Dean, Hope Davis, Jason Lee

Topics: Treatment, Ethics,

This is a generally entertaining, albeit predictable, feel-good movie.  As a psychologist, however, I

 found myself disliking the main character.  How does the field of psychology come across in this

film?  Does training do anything?  Is the ethics code reasonable?  Can one simply stop seeing a

client in order to have a romantic relationship with him/her?  Much to chew on from an ethics

perspective here.  Maybe the field is overlooking the curative effect of psychologist as

matchmaker (I hope you can sense my sarcarsm :).

Nurse Betty Favorite

Genre: Drama/Comedy Year: 2000 Rating: R

Actors: Renee Zellweger, Morgan Freeman, Chris Rock

Topics: Dissociative, Personality Disorder, Trauma

I had a different expectation for this movie, thinking more of a light romantic comedy. Not so.

Perhaps I'm spoiling the director's design in wanting to warn you up front, but there are some

especially violent scenes, often coming unexpectedly. Interpret these in light of the start of Betty's

 fugue state. Plenty to do in comparing Betty and the Morgan Freeman character, as well as Chris

Rock's character.  There is a bit of the Gilligan's Island syndrome again - coconut hit one results in

 bizarre behavior, coconut hit number two fixes it and all is well. If it only were so easy…

On Golden Pond Favorite

Genre: Drama/Comedy Year: 1981 Rating: PG

Actors: Katherine Hepburn, Henry Fonda, Jane Fonda

Topics: Dementia, Family Dysfunction

Academy Award winner for Best Actor and Best Actress. Beautiful story of enduring love in an

elderly couple, the husband's suffering from the early stages of dementia, and its effect on family

members. Acting doesn't get much better than this.

President's Analyst

Genre: Comedy Year: 1968 Rating: NR-PG-13

Actors: James Coburn, Geoffrey Cambridge, Severn Darden

Topics: Treatment

If you are an Austin Powers fan, you'll like this movie - a REAL 1960s flick, complete with the

music, the décor, the clothes, the drug use. It's relevance to this list is marginal - consider it from

the position of actually being the "president's analyst"  - what would be your confidentiality (and

safety?) issues.

Prime

Genre: Drama/Comedy Year: 2005 Rating: PG-13

Actors: Uma Thurmann, Meryl Streep, Bryan Greenberg

Topics: Treatment, Family Dysfunction

OK, I was "primed" to dislike this movie, based on the trailers. I was pleasantly surprised, but not

totally won over. The situation where a client becomes involved with a close family member is a

good one and should lead to discussions of dual relationships. What about the direction given by

the therapist's therapist?

Ruling Class, The

Genre: Drama/Comedy Year: 1972/2 Rating: PG-13

Actors: Peter O'Toole

Topics: Psychosis, Treatment, Family Dysfunction

This British black comedy has a cult following and was rereleased to include previously removed

footage, which is unfortunate, as I found it too long.  The first half or so I enjoyed, but found the

second half disturbing, as it unfortunately followed the oh-so-common path of schizophrenic as

dangerous.  Still worth watching, as Peter O'Toole appears believing he is God and the treatment

facility at first seems so benevolent.  But, alas, the treating psychiatrist loses his ethical scruples,

not to mention his sanity.  The portrayal of schizophrenic dialogue is quite good, as well as

O'Toole's initial efforts to suppress his psychosis.  Doesn't rise to the level of a "favorite," but

worth watching.

Sweethearts

Genre: Drama/Comedy Year: 1996 Rating: R

Actors: Janeane Garofalo, Mitch Rouse, Margaret Cho

Topics: Bipolar, Suicide

What to do when your blind date turns out to be an engaging young woman with bipolar disorder

and suicidal ideation?

The Madness of King George Favorite

Genre: Drama/Comedy Year: 1994 Rating: R

Actors: Nigel Hawthorne, Helen Mirren, Ian Holm

Topics: Psychosis, Poyphyria

A great movie. Psychosis caused by a metabolic disorder (porphyria).  Look out if you start peeing

 blue!

Weatherman, The Favorite

Genre: Drama/Comedy Year: 2005 Rating: R

Actors: Nicolas Cage, Michael Caine, Hope Davis

Topics: Dysthymia, Personality Disorder, Family Dysfunction

Another "man's search for meaning film."  Serious, yet with plenty of comedy to keep you

entertained. Consider the weatherman's diagnosis - dysthymia? Depressive PD? Also, what's your

interpretation of the father (Michael Caine)? Some reviewers saw him as a negative character - I

disagree and found him to be as supportive as he could be, while recognizing his son's failings.

What About Bob Favorite

Genre: Comedy Year: 1991 Rating: PG-13

Actors: Richard Dreyfuss, Bill Murray, Julie Hagerty

Topics: Treatment, Personality Disorder, Family Dysfunction

Cute movie with Richard Dreyfuss as the competent (or burned out?) psychotherapist and Bill

Murray as the patient (who seems to have more insight...).  Note the difference in perception of

Bob between the therapist and his family. Has its flaws, but is a fun film.

What's Eating Gilbert Grape

Genre: Drama/Comedy Year: 1993 Rating: PG-13

Actors: Johnny Depp, Leonardo diCaprio, Juliette Lewis

Topics: Family Dysfunction, Childhood Disorder, Depression

Slice of life film, with Johnny Depp as the young adult caring for his family - a depressed, morbidly

 obese mother, a brother with a developmental disorder, and two sisters. Somehow, he manages

it all. Good movie.

Woody Allen

Genre: Drama/Comedy Year: Variable Rating: Variable

Actors: Woody Allen, Various

Topics: Neurosis

Pretty much any movie with Woody Allen in it deals with neurosis! In particular, in "Hollywood

Ending" he develops conversion blindness.