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Educational Movies

Mental Health

  • A Beautiful Mind
    This movie, based on a true story, highlights the life of John Forbes Nash, Jr. (Russel Crow), a mathematical savant who lived with schizophrenia. The movie beautifully captures the challenges John faced throughout his life, including paranoia and delusions that altered his promising career and deeply affected his life. Through the magic of film, viewers can live John’s hallucinations with him, which feel as real to the audience as they did to him.
  • Matchstick Men
    Roy (Nicolas Cage) is a con artist working with his protégé to steal a lot of money. While he may be confident in his ability to steal from the rich, he struggles in other aspects of his life. His debilitating Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD), agoraphobia and panic attacks make it difficult for him to leave his apartment or even open a door. When he discovers he has a 14-year-old daughter, he’s forced to evaluate his career choices and isolated lifestyle. Matchstick Men is an honest depiction of the rituals and behaviors of someone living with OCD. 
  • It’s Kind Of A Funny Story
    You wouldn’t think a movie set in a mental health hospital could be a comedy. However, this well-crafted 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. He ends up staying in the adult unit because the youth wing is under renovation. The hospital is not a scary place and the patients are not portrayed as “mad” or “insane”—it’s a safe place where people struggling are getting help, and using humor as a relief from the serious conditions that brought them there. This Hollywood approach to a psychiatric unit may be more comical than any real-life scenario, but it helps normalize the fact that sometimes people need this level of care. 
  • Silver Linings Playbook
    After a stay in a mental health hospital, Pat Solatano (Bradley Cooper) is forced to move back in with his parents. His previously untreated symptoms of bipolar disorder caused him to lose both his wife and job, and he is determined to get his wife back. In his efforts, Pat meets Tiffany (Jennifer Lawrence), who offers to help him in exchange for Pat being her ballroom dance partner. Silver Linings Playbook represents the range of emotion that often occurs with bipolar disorder in a real and riveting way. 
  • The Perks Of Being A Wallflower
    Socially awkward Charlie (Logan Lerman) starts high school isolated and anxious. Luckily, he becomes friends with a group of charismatic seniors, including Sam (Emma Watson) and Patrick (Ezra Miller). His friends bring joy to his life, but his inner turmoil reaches a high when they prepare to leave for college. As the film goes on, we learn more about Charlie’s mental health journey—from his stay in a psychiatric hospital to the details of a childhood trauma. This coming-of-age movie does an exemplary job of showing the highs and lows of growing up with mental illness.
  • The Skeleton Twins
    The opening scene of Skeleton Twins shows the film’s main characters, Milo (Bill Hader) and Maggie (Kristen Wiig), both attempting suicide. Milo’s attempt lands him in the hospital, which reunites the brother and sister after 10 years of estrangement. Both characters express their depression in candid and humorous ways as they learn to accept each other and themselves.
  • Infinitely Polar Bear
    Cam (Mark Ruffalo), a father with bipolar disorder, becomes the sole caregiver for his two daughters while his wife (Zoe Saldana) goes away to graduate school. Throughout the movie, Cam faces many challenges that make it difficult for him to take care of his daughters. However, despite the severity of his condition (and some unique parenting methods that accompany it), Cam learns that he is a good father who cares deeply for his family. Infinitely Polar Bear is a very meaningful portrayal of how families can be impacted by mental illness.
  • Welcome To Me
    Alice (Kristen Wiig) has just decided to go off her medications for Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) when she wins the lottery. She impulsively buys her own talk show with the money, in which she shares her opinions with the world. Although portrayed in a humorous way, Alice shows many of the traits of BPD, including mood swings and unstable relationships. As her behavior pushes away the people closest to her—including her therapist—she starts to take her mental health condition more seriously and works to keep her loved ones in her life. In the process, she falsifies the myth that a person with BPD is selfish.
  • Inside Out
    This quirky animation personifies the different emotions inside a young girl’s mind. Characters Joy, Sadness, Anger, Fear and Disgust try to help Riley through her family’s move to San Francisco. 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.

Substance Use

  • Clean and Sober
    Hotshot real estate salesman Daryl (Michael Keaton) suffers from serious cocaine addiction. After making a string of disastrous mistakes, he checks into a rehabilitation program guaranteeing anonymity. Under the supervision of his counselor, Craig (Morgan Freeman), Daryl accepts his substance abuse problem and begins to commit to a sober life.
  • When a Man Loves a Woman
    Alice Green (Meg Ryan) is a wife and mother of two daughters who has developed a dangerous drinking problem. Michael (Andy Garcia), Alice’s husband, walks a thin line between showing patience and enabling her alcoholism. When her addiction compromises her girls’ safety, Alice decides to seek help at a rehab clinic. When she returns home, her recovery and relationships are put to the test. 
  • 28 Days
    A New York journalist with a “work hard, play harder” mentality takes it too far when she makes a scene at an important family event. When a judge orders her to rehab for a month, her lifestyle is put to the test as she begins to take addiction seriously.
  • Flight
    Airline pilot Whip Whitakers’ (Denzel Washington) secret drug and alcohol usage hadn’t affected his flight safety until a mechanical malfunction sent his plane falling to the ground. Whip miraculously lands the plane with only six casualties. Despite the miracle landing by Whip, his addiction begins to come out of the darkness while he attempts to get clean.
  • Beautiful Boy
    Nicolas Sheff (Timothée Chalamet) was the poster child for good behavior, but when his addiction to meth unravels, his father goes to great lengths to save his son and family.
  • The Way Back
    Jack Cunningham (Ben Affleck) was a local basketball star known for making bad life choices. While struggling with alcoholism, Jack reflected on his meaningless job, failed marriage, and hopes for a new chance at a better life. Jack gets that chance by becoming the head coach for his failing alma mater basketball program.
  • Basketball Diaries
    The Basketball diaries is a true story based on the life of Jim Carroll. It tells how a teenager goes from being a successful basketball player to a homeless heroin addict. As his addiction worsens he completely loses any sense of self-respect and finds himself in very compromising situations. His journey takes him through prison and then into a mental asylum. The road back to sanity is long and difficult but he eventually manages to put his life back together.
  • My Name is Bill W
    This film is based on the true story of Bill W., the founder of Alcoholics Anonymous. It looks at how Bill came to terms with his own substance abuse issues, and how he joined with other people who struggled with alcohol use to form the self-help group that would became the most widely known type of addiction treatment.