movies dealing with mental illness/addiction
by meowie_mum | created - 04 Jul 2017 | updated - 29 Oct 2020 | Publicand actually maintain some kind of credibility while doing so
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1. Infinitely Polar Bear (2014)
R | 90 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
A father struggling with bipolar disorder tries to win back his wife by attempting to take full responsibility of their two young, spirited daughters, who don't make the overwhelming task any easier.
Director: Maya Forbes | Stars: Mark Ruffalo, Zoe Saldana, Imogene Wolodarsky, Ashley Aufderheide
Votes: 17,044 | Gross: $1.43M
2. Touched with Fire (2015)
R | 106 min | Drama, Romance
Two bipolar patients meet in a psychiatric hospital and begin a romance that brings out all of the beauty and horror of their condition.
Director: Paul Dalio | Stars: Katie Holmes, Luke Kirby, Christine Lahti, Griffin Dunne
Votes: 2,725 | Gross: $0.15M
3. I Smile Back (2015)
R | 85 min | Drama, Mystery, Romance
Addicted to drugs and alcohol, a housewife's self-destructive behavior starts to take its toll on her husband and two young children.
Director: Adam Salky | Stars: Sarah Silverman, Josh Charles, Skylar Gaertner, Shayne Coleman
Votes: 5,707 | Gross: $0.06M
4. Thanks for Sharing (2012)
R | 112 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
A romantic comedy that brings together three disparate characters who are learning to face a challenging and often confusing world as they struggle together against a common demon: sex addiction.
Director: Stuart Blumberg | Stars: Mark Ruffalo, Tim Robbins, Gwyneth Paltrow, Josh Gad
Votes: 29,538 | Gross: $1.06M
5. Girl, Interrupted (1999)
R | 127 min | Biography, Drama
A directionless teenager, Susanna, is rushed to Claymoore, a mental institution, after a supposed suicide attempt. There, she befriends a group of troubled women who deeply influence her life.
Director: James Mangold | Stars: Winona Ryder, Angelina Jolie, Clea DuVall, Brittany Murphy
Votes: 211,440 | Gross: $28.87M
6. A Beautiful Mind (2001)
PG-13 | 135 min | Biography, Drama, Mystery
A mathematical genius, John Nash made an astonishing discovery early in his career and stood on the brink of international acclaim. But the handsome and arrogant Nash soon found himself on a harrowing journey of self-discovery.
Director: Ron Howard | Stars: Russell Crowe, Ed Harris, Jennifer Connelly, Christopher Plummer
Votes: 987,360 | Gross: $170.74M
7. Love & Mercy (2014)
PG-13 | 121 min | Biography, Drama, Music
In the 60s, Beach Boys leader Brian Wilson struggles with emerging psychosis as he attempts to craft his avant-garde pop masterpiece. In the 80s, he's a broken, confused man under the 24-hour watch of shady therapist, Dr. Eugene Landy.
Director: Bill Pohlad | Stars: John Cusack, Paul Dano, Elizabeth Banks, Paul Giamatti
Votes: 42,624 | Gross: $12.55M
8. Silver Linings Playbook (2012)
R | 122 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
After a stint in a mental institution, former teacher Pat Solitano moves back in with his parents and tries to reconcile with his ex-wife. Things get more challenging when Pat meets Tiffany, a mysterious girl with problems of her own.
Director: David O. Russell | Stars: Bradley Cooper, Jennifer Lawrence, Robert De Niro, Jacki Weaver
Votes: 742,950 | Gross: $132.09M
9. Lars and the Real Girl (2007)
PG-13 | 106 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
A delusional young man strikes up an unconventional relationship with a doll he finds on the Internet.
Director: Craig Gillespie | Stars: Ryan Gosling, Emily Mortimer, Paul Schneider, R.D. Reid
Votes: 155,454 | Gross: $5.97M
10. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975)
R | 133 min | Drama
In the Fall of 1963, a Korean War veteran and criminal pleads insanity and is admitted to a mental institution, where he rallies up the scared patients against the tyrannical nurse.
Director: Milos Forman | Stars: Jack Nicholson, Louise Fletcher, Michael Berryman, Peter Brocco
Votes: 1,072,769 | Gross: $112.00M
11. Little Miss Sunshine (2006)
R | 101 min | Comedy, Drama
A family determined to get their young daughter into the finals of a beauty pageant take a cross-country trip in their VW bus.
Directors: Jonathan Dayton, Valerie Faris | Stars: Steve Carell, Toni Collette, Greg Kinnear, Abigail Breslin
Votes: 518,292 | Gross: $59.89M
12. No Letting Go (2015)
TV-PG | 104 min | Drama
What would you do to save your child? A young teenager struggles with a debilitating mental illness as his mom risks everything to save him without losing the rest of her family.
Director: Jonathan D. Bucari | Stars: Cheryl Allison, Richard Burgi, David Schallipp, Noah Silverman
Votes: 746
13. Wristcutters: A Love Story (2006)
R | 88 min | Comedy, Drama, Fantasy
A film set in a strange afterlife way station that has been reserved for people who have committed suicide.
Director: Goran Dukic | Stars: Patrick Fugit, Shea Whigham, Tom Waits, Will Arnett
Votes: 57,719 | Gross: $0.32M
14. Jacob's Ladder (I) (1990)
R | 113 min | Drama, Horror, Mystery
Mourning his dead child, a haunted Vietnam War veteran attempts to uncover his past while suffering from a severe case of dissociation. To do so, he must decipher reality and life from his own dreams, delusions, and perceptions of death.
Director: Adrian Lyne | Stars: Tim Robbins, Elizabeth Peña, Danny Aiello, Matt Craven
Votes: 117,934 | Gross: $26.12M
15. The Virgin Suicides (1999)
R | 97 min | Drama, Romance
A group of male friends become obsessed with five mysterious sisters who are sheltered by their strict, religious parents in suburban Detroit in the mid 1970s.
Director: Sofia Coppola | Stars: Kirsten Dunst, Josh Hartnett, James Woods, Kathleen Turner
Votes: 169,293 | Gross: $4.86M
16. Short Term 12 (2013)
R | 96 min | Drama
A 20-something supervising staff member of a residential treatment facility navigates the troubled waters of that world alongside her co-worker and longtime boyfriend.
Director: Destin Daniel Cretton | Stars: Brie Larson, Frantz Turner, John Gallagher Jr., Kaitlyn Dever
Votes: 91,826 | Gross: $1.01M
17. The Basketball Diaries (1995)
R | 102 min | Biography, Crime, Drama
A teenager finds his dreams of becoming a basketball star threatened after he free falls into the harrowing world of drug addiction.
Director: Scott Kalvert | Stars: Leonardo DiCaprio, Lorraine Bracco, Marilyn Sokol, James Madio
Votes: 121,083 | Gross: $2.42M
18. Elizabeth Blue (2017)
PG-13 | 95 min | Drama
A young woman, recently released from a mental hospital, is coping with ongoing episodes of schizophrenia.
Director: Vincent Sabella | Stars: Anna Schafer, Ryan Vincent, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, Kathleen Quinlan
Votes: 156 | Gross: $0.07M
19. Joker (I) (2019)
R | 122 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
During the 1980s, a failed stand-up comedian is driven insane and turns to a life of crime and chaos in Gotham City while becoming an infamous psychopathic crime figure.
Director: Todd Phillips | Stars: Joaquin Phoenix, Robert De Niro, Zazie Beetz, Frances Conroy
Votes: 1,490,176 | Gross: $335.45M
20. To the Bone (I) (2017)
TV-MA | 107 min | Drama
A young woman, dealing with anorexia, meets an unconventional doctor who challenges her to face her condition and embrace life.
Director: Marti Noxon | Stars: Rebekah Kennedy, Lily Collins, Dana L. Wilson, Ziah Colon
Votes: 54,871
21. Inside Out (I) (2015)
PG | 95 min | Animation, Adventure, Comedy
After young Riley is uprooted from her Midwest life and moved to San Francisco, her emotions - Joy, Fear, Anger, Disgust and Sadness - conflict on how best to navigate a new city, house, and school.
Directors: Pete Docter, Ronnie Del Carmen | Stars: Amy Poehler, Bill Hader, Lewis Black, Mindy Kaling
Votes: 785,859 | Gross: $356.46M
22. Fight Club (1999)
R | 139 min | Drama
An insomniac office worker and a devil-may-care soap maker form an underground fight club that evolves into much more.
Director: David Fincher | Stars: Brad Pitt, Edward Norton, Meat Loaf, Zach Grenier
Votes: 2,325,306 | Gross: $37.03M
23. The Soloist (2009)
PG-13 | 117 min | Biography, Drama, Music
A newspaper journalist discovers a homeless musical genius and tries to improve his situation.
Director: Joe Wright | Stars: Jamie Foxx, Robert Downey Jr., Catherine Keener, Tom Hollander
Votes: 55,410 | Gross: $31.67M
24. The Perks of Being a Wallflower (2012)
PG-13 | 103 min | Drama
Charlie, a 15-year-old introvert, enters high school and is nervous about his new life. When he befriends his seniors, he learns to cope with his friend's suicide and his tumultuous past.
Director: Stephen Chbosky | Stars: Logan Lerman, Emma Watson, Ezra Miller, Paul Rudd
Votes: 548,210 | Gross: $17.74M
25. It's Kind of a Funny Story (2010)
PG-13 | 101 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
A clinically-depressed teenager gets a new start after he checks himself into an adult psychiatric ward.
Directors: Anna Boden, Ryan Fleck | Stars: Keir Gilchrist, Zach Galifianakis, Emma Roberts, Dana DeVestern
Votes: 148,241 | Gross: $6.35M
26. May I Be at Peace (2018)
PG-13 | 95 min | Drama
May I Be at Peace follows the lives and recoveries of several children in an eating disorder hospital.
Director: Sofia Martinez | Stars: Aleis Work, Cole Allen, Charlotte Delaney Riggs, Sofia Buntz
Votes: 50
27. Lonely Boy (I) (2013)
124 min | Comedy, Drama
The romantic misadventures of a schizophrenic bachelor.
Director: Dale Fabrigar | Stars: Alev Aydin, Natalie Distler, Melora Walters, Richard Riehle
Votes: 216
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