Recently, I have gotten into a YouTube channel by the name of Cinema Therapy. I cannot exclaim how much I enjoy this channel, as it is a blend of a couple of my biggest passions. The hosts are wonderful, insightful, and fun to watch, and they keep the content engaging and intelligent while remaining understandable. You can find the channel here: https://www.youtube.com/@CinemaTherapyShow

The combination of stumbling upon this channel whilst also having written my top 5 books blog a few months back has given rise to this (if I do say so myself) brilliant idea for today’s blog post: my top five movie recommendations.

DISCLAIMER: Most of these movies explore very heavy themes and content. Before you show your kids any of these, I would highly recommend reviewing the content yourself or reading a parental review for the movie. In addition, let this also serve as a trigger warning, as I will be going into small details of the plot of each movie.

With that small note out of the way, here we go!

5. Silver Linings Playbook

Starting off our list is the Silver Linings Playbook, starring Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence. This movie is a fun yet serious look into the reality of mental struggles such as bipolar disorder, obsessive compulsive disorder, anxiety, and more. Cooper plays Pat, a man with bipolar disorder who is released from a psychiatric hospital and moves back in with his parents. Pat’s main goal getting out of the hospital is to win back his ex-wife through exercise, finding a job, and becoming the man he should be. He meets a young widow played by Lawrence named Tiffany (who also struggles with a variety of mental health issues), who makes a deal with him: if he enters a dance competition with her, she’ll help get his wife back. It is a fantastic journey from start to finish with honest glimpses into themes of grief, acceptance, and love.

4. Room

Let me start out by saying there is a reason Brie Larson won the Oscar in 2015. This story follows a mother-son duo escape from the confines of her kidnapper into the journey of coping with the outside world that neither of them have known for several years. The mother explores themes of anger and depression, while the son is confused and lost trying to understand the real outside world. It is a beautiful illustration of the process from trauma to healing, with a heartfelt, symbolic ending. While a lot of the movie explores heavy subjects (sexual assault and suicide), if you are in a place where you can watch this movie, I highly recommend it.

3. Inside Out

Unlike the others on this list, this one needs no trigger warning or disclaimers. Inside Out is a remarkable Disney Pixar film that follows the mind of a young girl named Riley, specifically the emotions that control her actions: Joy, Sadness, Anger, Fear, and Disgust. Riley’s life is made up of many core memories of happiness, until the day she and her family move to another state and Sadness creates a memory. In an attempt to stop the memory from being made, Joy (Amy Poehler) and Sadness (Phyllis Smith) accidentally get displaced from the headquarters that the emotions operate at and are forced to work together to get back. Meanwhile, Anger, Disgust, and Fear are at the steering wheel! All the while, we see in real time the decisions Riley makes when each emotion is in control. This movie takes an absolutely brilliant concept and paints a beautiful picture of how each emotion plays an important role in our lives.

2. The Babadook

Back at it again with the adult oriented movies, we have The Babadook. Not only is it unrated (which essentially means rated-R), but also is the one and only horror movie on this list. I realize that a lot of people are not a fan of horror movies, and I would not call myself an avid scary movie lover, but with this one I made an exception. The story follows the mother Amelia (Essie Davis) as she struggles to raise her increasingly erratic son Samuel (Noah Wiseman) as a widow of only a year. One night they read a storybook together about the Babadook, a creature who attacks people who become aware of it. You can guess what happens next, and if you throw in health issues with the child mixed with the insomnia of an unreliable narrator, you are in for a bone-chilling story. But beyond the plot and the cinematography lies a tale of a woman who is struggling with depression, parenthood, and the toughest of them all: grief. The story ends with perhaps the most beautiful metaphor for grief displayed in cinema I have ever seen (or at the very least the most accurate). Do not watch this one if you are not enticed by the horror genre, but if you fall in that little gap between therapy and scary, this one just might be for you.

1. Good Will Hunting

The pinnacle of therapeutic movies (and in my opinion, the pinnacle of movies, period) comes the one and only Good Will Hunting. This film is worthy of all the praise it received when it came out, and still holds up even today. In this story we follow Will Hunting (played by Matt Damon), a young mathematical genius from a poverty-stricken area of South Boston. Recently paroled on the condition that he studies mathematics with local college professor Gerald Lambeau (Stellan Skarsgard), as well as participates in mandatory therapy with Dr. Sean Maguire (Robin Williams), we go through this journey watching Will explore his traumatic background, learn what he can become, and opening up to a budding romance. You cannot help but feel the warmth this film creates. Add on top of that Robin Williams as your therapist for the next hour and a half and you have a recipe for the ages. Exploring ideas of trauma, love, vulnerability, and potential, Good Will Hunting is more than deserving of the number one spot on this list.

I hope you enjoyed reading my humble opinion on some films that not only have inspired me in my career, but filled my mind with incredible moments that fuel me every day with my clients.