There have been a lot of successful and incredible films that is centered on Mental Health, Mental Illness and Depression. The recent version of A Star is Born shows the dark side of a musician who deals with alcoholism and how it messes with him mentally. Joker was a surprisingly amazing film that showed a darker side of the comic book character by showing his life with mental health issues. Other films like Silver Linings Playbook, Anomolisa, Good Will Hunting and A Beautiful Mind show depression and mental health in different ways and do a great job at it. But there is one film based off of a book that did pretty decently critically but did poorly in the box office yet it is a freaking great film that perfectly shows mental health and depression. The film is called “It’s Kind of a Funny Story” and as of right now it has 58% on Rotten Tomatoes and I’m pretty upset that it has a low rating and while it generally received positive reviews from critics, it still doesn’t get enough appreciation. The story around this film alone should be talked about more considering the plot of the film is about a 16 year old boy going into a psych ward because he wants to kill himself. As a person who had thoughts and even almost attempted to kill himself at 16 years old I’m kind of shocked that this movie isn’t shown in high schools to give teenagers the idea of what it is like to have depression at a young age or even about suicide. The film does a great job with the topic of Mental Health in hand and the fact that I barely see reviews on this film online is pretty ridiculous, so I guess it’s my time to shine. This film is over 10 years old and deserves some god damn appreciation. So here goes nothing, let’s talk about It’s Kind of a Funny Story and why it is an underappreciated film.
*SPOILER WARNING AHEAD*
Now I’m going to take a second and talk about myself and why this movie means so much to me. I’m 25 years old and I have had depression for many years and hid it for most of my life. Most recently I stopped hiding my struggles and told the world about not only having depression and mental health issues but the fact that I struggled in life with bullying and how I had dark thoughts and wanted to kill myself, with almost even attempting too. I want people to know that this review might trigger you if you also are a victim of depression or mental health so this is a fair warning before the review as I will be possibly be pretty lengthy about the topic in hand in this review.
It’s Kind of a Funny Story was directed by Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck. The two have worked together for a while as they both directed the film Sugar and would later work together with Captain Marvel. The film has a pretty weird cast that consists of future big names in film and some smaller not well known names. The cast includes Keir Gilchirst (Craig Gilner), Emma Roberts (Noelle), Zach Galifianakis (Bobby), Viola Davis (Dr. Minerva), Zoe Kravitz (Nia), Thomas Mann (Aaron Fitzcarraldo), Lauren Graham (Lynn Gilner), Jim Gaffigan (George Gilner), Matthew Maher (Humble), Bernard White (Muqtada), Adrian Martinez (Johnny), Jeremy Davis (Smitty) and Aasif Mandvi (Dr. Mahmoud). I have to say this cast really did a very great job with their roles and bringing this story to life on the big screen. Now while the film might be centered on Mental Health and Depression, it is a dark comedy film. The film has its dramatic moments but it is mainly known as a comedy. Google has it as a Drama/Romance but I promise you this film is mostly a Dark Comedy. Now the movie is based on the novel of the same name and was written by Ned Vizzini. Vizzini actually has a small role in the film as the Music Teacher which I found pretty cool upon researching the film. But the story of the novel is actually inspired by Vizzini’s own hospitalization for depression back in November 2004. In fact the character Craig Gilner represents Vizzini and his struggles with depression and how he spent a few days at an adult psych ward. His novel did pretty well and was even selected by the American Library Association for its list of the Best Books for Young Adults back in 2007. Sadly Ned Vizzini took his own life at age 32 in 2013. Rest In Peace </3. Now I’m not going to judge how well the movie adapted from the book as I never read the book Ned Vizzini wrote but as I read and watched online the book was adapted somewhat well as some things were missing and they changed up a few things from the book but other than that it was adapted pretty well.
The movie starts us right off into Craig deciding if he should commit suicide or not by jumping off the Brooklyn Bridge. He decides not to but he goes to a hospital to seek for help. He is then registered for a 5 day stay in the hospital’s psychiatric floor and we get to learn more about Craig and why he has the feelings of depression and wanted to commit suicide. He is dealing with a lot of pressure from school cause he has to turn in this application so he can get into a great school, he is constantly shadowed by his best friend Aaron and his success, he get’s pressure from home from his dad who wants him to do really well and he has a crush on his best friend’s girlfriend, Nia, which upsets him because he wishes she was dating him. Also he can’t hold in the food that he eats as he throws it back up once he eats it but that’s not a reason why he is depressed. Now this is something we see a lot of today in real life with people feeling so much pressure that it fucks with their minds. Thinking they won’t be good enough to do something or will be a failure if they don’t succeed is something many young teens think of mentally and it could lead to them becoming depressed and feel suicidal because they have all this pressure that causes them to either have anxiety or panic attacks or possibly suicidal thoughts. I like that we learn early on about Craig’s depression and what caused him to feel this way because it tells us about his character and we can later watch his character develop instead of learning throughout the film why he has depression and what led him to want to attempt suicide. Plus it gave us more time to learn about other characters in the film.
So Craig is placed in an adult ward, mainly because the teen ward is under renovations, but it is here where we get to meet some of the characters. We meet the character Bobby who takes Craig under his wing and claims to be in the hospital because he is on vacation but we learn later on in the movie that he is in the psych ward because he attempted to commit suicide six times. I will talk more about the bond in the movie in a few as I want to talk about a couple more of the characters Craig meets that become a big part of his character development in the film. There are a few other teenagers in the adult ward that we meet but the main character we mostly learn about is Noelle. She is a teenage patient in the psych ward who is in there because of self-harm. She has a couple of scars on her face and we later learn that she has some on her arms. This is a pretty common thing for teenagers to do as one of the main problems teens with depression and suicidal thoughts go through is self-harm. I know this because I know people and I am friends with people who self-harmed themselves in the past. 17% of all ages of people that self-harm are teenagers. Teenagers or adolescents are also the highest percentile of self-harm injuries. I’m bringing this up because not many people are educated by these facts and its best they are educated in some way in case they ever meet someone that does self-harm or have depression/suicidal thoughts. Our last character I want to talk about that Craig meets is his roommate, Muqtada. I don’t think it’s mentioned why he is there but I believe he has depression as he never leaves his room and half of the film we see him laying in bed depressed. But I will get to why his character helps develop Craig’s character a little later on. But we also learn about some of the smaller characters as they all deal with different mental illnesses. The film does a great job at giving each character we do learn about their time in the spotlight. Yeah some characters are given the spotlight more due to the fact that they play a bigger key role in the story but I like that the movie really touches upon why the character’s are in the psych ward and I like that Craig gets to learn head on about mental illnesses a bit more during his stay as he isn’t the only person who is either depressed or has suicidal thoughts or has a mental health problem.
Let me talk more about a certain scene that throughout time I learned to really love and see why it was done in such a very unique way. So prior to this scene Craig has shown off a certain talent, he can paint, but he paints this imaginary city map that describes his own brain. Craig said that he can’t draw prior to painting the picture and once he was done everyone in the painting session said it was beautiful. It then became something Craig would do throughout the film. The thing is at first he said he couldn’t draw and yet he proved himself wrong. Whether he was lying or was just shy he showed that he could draw pretty well. So now this takes us into this scene as Craig and the rest of the patients in the psych ward attend a music session. Everyone has an instrument except for Craig who is then volunteered by the music teacher to sing. Craig says he can’t sing but all of the patients chant his name to go up to the microphone. He goes up to the mic and the teacher hands him a song, Under Pressure. We then go from the group playing terribly, in my opinion of course, but it then transitions to the whole group including Craig on the mic performing the Queen/David Bowie song Under Pressure while they are dressed like rock stars. I believe it’s mostly lip synched but once the song ends it transitions back to Craig putting the mic back onto the stand and everyone looking around in shock and cheering him on. I’m not sure if this is 100% true as the movie never puts any light onto it but I believe our boy Craig could also sing. Now the reason why I love this scene is pretty much because the song in particular parallels to Craig. Now as we learned by now Craig is depressed and had suicidal thoughts because he had so much “pressure” in his life. The song “Under Pressure” has multiple meanings around it but one that I know for sure is the fact that the song is about how pressure is killing us and that the best way to get rid of the pressure is to show love for others for being there for you. That is my thoughts about the song but if you really look into the details, Craig’s pressures of getting into a good school, making his father proud, having his best friend be better at everything, that all kind of goes away for a moment when he sings with the group, a group of people that have supported him and been there for him since he came into the hospital. Bobby put him under his wing and gave him some advice. And Noelle has a strong connection with him to the point that she makes him happy and vice versa. Craig comes out of his shell and shows off his talent when he is with the group of patients and all the pressures in his life kind of just fade away for a while. Sure we don’t get to see Craig sing but if he got an applause like he did from the group after we transitioned to him pretending to be a rock star/Freddie Mercury to being back into the hospital music group session then he must have some sort of musical talent. I love how they parallel the song with not only Craig’s struggles of pressure but also with the love and support each member of the group put onto each other and Craig. This is a very unique scene that to some is very misplaced and has no meaning but if you look deep into the scene you can then find something big about it.
I mentioned earlier that Craig and Bobby have a bond and I think it be best to talk about their strong bond. Throughout the film Bobby is kind of like a father figure, maybe even a big brother, to Craig as he is constantly giving Craig advice and in return Craig gives him some advice and helps him be a better person. When Craig first enters the hospital he meets Bobby. When Bobby is in need of a shirt for an interview Craig said he would let Bobby borrow one of his father’s shirts. Both characters develop better when they are together as we learn so much about Bobby when Craig and him share a scene and Craig’s character development continues to grow in a very strong way as he is more open about stuff in his life. Both characters are there for each other because they care so much about each other and a certain scene where there bond really shines is when Craig and Bobby sneak out of the psych ward and play basketball. This is the scene where we get to learn about why Bobby is in the psych ward, but more importantly it’s a scene where Bobby teaches a life lesson to Craig. In this scene Bobby also helps Craig practice asking Noelle out but Craig also asks Bobby if he tried to kill himself and Bobby tells him he has tried to kill himself six times and it’s the reason why he is in the hospital. Craig tells him that he wanted to commit suicide but decided to just go to the hospital and find help and Bobby said he wished he had a life like Craig and just live. Craig is only 16 but he even though he has all these pressures in his life he still has a family that loves him and still has a great life. For Bobby it’s a bit different. We get an idea about his life but it seems that Bobby’s life has been very dark and been a rollercoaster ride. Bobby straight up tells him how cool and smart he is and that he has a family that loves him and that he would do anything to have a life like him, to just live life like it meant something. It’s a very powerful scene where Zack Galifianakis literally puts so much emotion into this one character and where the character Craig Gilner learns that life might put so much pressures into your life but you have to be strong and live life like there is no tomorrow.
So I also mentioned earlier about Craig’s character develops because of the character Muqtada and while he has a bigger character development with Bobby, with Muqtada he shows how much of a caring person he is with someone he hardly knows. Yes we see that with Bobby or with Noelle but he gets pretty close with them and gets to know them more throughout the film. With Muqtada he only learns a thing or two about him. But mostly we know that he has a deep depression and that’s why he stays in his room and in bed all day. That and many people find him to be smelly but that barely gets brought up. Craig learns that Muqtada loves Egyptian music and that’s kind of one of the more positive things we learn about Muqtada. So in one of the final scenes of the film Craig asks his friend Aaron a favor and during the pizza party Craig plays an Egyptian music record. Soon after we see Muqtatda leave the room and join the party and begin to dance. But this little scene proves how much Craig has grown as a person. He cares about the people in the psych ward because yes they have mental illnesses and mental health issues but they are still human and just like him they do not have perfect lives. Muqtada and Craig never shared a lot of time with each other during his stay in the hospital but for Craig he finds a way to get Muqtada out of the room and be a part of something within the group of people in the psych ward. It’s not the biggest character development for Craig but it’s a pretty great way to show how much he has grown as a person. For me I found this moment to be a huge step for Craig as he has grown so much in just these 5 days at staying in the adult psych ward. Like I said before it’s not the biggest character development for Craig but it’s a moment in the movie that I really like.
The final thing I have written down in my notes that I do want to talk about for the movie is Craig and Noelle. They have a strong connection with each other in this film, as Bobby mentions in the scene when both he and Craig play basketball. Now while I really enjoy the strong bond between Bobby and Craig, it’s this strong connection between Craig and Noelle that makes me really enjoy this movie. Noelle is kind of the only teen in the psych ward that Craig has a connection with and they quickly care about each other and Craig begins to start having feelings for her. At the same time he likes his best friend’s girlfriend Nia, but that begins to change once he and Noelle spend more time together in the hospital. I kind of relate to how Craig feels for Noelle and that’s probably why their connection is one of my favorite things about the movie. Most recently I met a girl who I can say I have a strong connection with and just like Noelle and Craig we kind of quickly got really close. We care a lot about each other to the point where I can say I don’t feel alone anymore after meeting her. Craig and Noelle’s relationship, whether it’s their friendship or beginnings of their intimate relationship, has this strong connection that both understand each other’s issues and care so much about each other that they will do everything and anything to show how much they care for one another. By the way I won’t bring up the girl’s name in my review out of respect for her but if she does read this review just know I thought about you while watching this movie and care so much about you.
The ending of this film shows how much Craig has changed as a person and how he wants to become an artist, has a pretty great relationship with Noelle, he volunteers at the hospital to help the people in the psych ward, he’s doing a lot of great things and feels better. The ending isn’t the greatest ending ever but I like that the movie ends in a happy note. All and all, I really love this movie. I feel like there are some stuff missing from the book that I am not aware of and because I never read the book I probably won’t know for sure. But I feel like the movie did a very great job adapting the book and yes not everything was correctly adapted but for what it is worth the movie is pretty damn good. Which reminds me why does movie not get any love?
The movie at this point has been out and on TV or streaming services or even on DVD for 10 years now and I really don’t see anyone talk about it and it’s kind of sad to be honest. Like for a movie that talks about a teenager having suicidal thoughts because he is depressed from the pressures of school and from pressures at home, you would think this movie would be shown in high schools more and help teach these kids/teens about mental health and depression. I was in high school when I first saw this movie and I really didn’t have a great understanding of the events that was going on and the topic in hand as I was unaware of all of it. At the same time I was going though the same shit Craig was going through but a bit differently. I was bullied and cyber bullied in school and I also have ADHD so I was constantly trying to do better in school and I felt pressure from it and I was beginning to become depressed because of all of it. If I failed an exam I was depressed and worried about one what my parents would think but two will my grades look like shit. I began to have suicidal thoughts at age 15ish, close to 16 and I hid those feelings a lot from people because I didn’t know who to tell or if I should tell anyone. I think after re-watching the film after many years I was not only able to understand the story better but I had experience of understanding why I was depressed and why I began to have suicidal thoughts. I was able to finally stop bubbling everything in and tell people about my struggles and mental health issues. In fact just after watching the film I literally thought I don’t want to be sad anymore and I don’t want to hide my pain anymore, so I went on Snapchat and posted my story and a few days later I posted it everywhere else from Instagram and Facebook and I felt a bit better actually. It felt great to get everything off my chest, to message people that I really haven’t talked to in a long time and tell them that they helped me during a dark time in my life. This movie made me realize all of that and that’s why I think it needs to be shown to these teens today so they can understand depression better or mental health. I think everyone should see this movie to be honest because you get to see both sides of the story from a 16 year old boy to a 40 year old man. You get to see how far and how much depression, mental health issues/illnesses and suicidal thoughts can change a person and make them feel so many things in life to the point where they either try to get help or end their life. I’ve been friends with people that have had suicidal thoughts or depression and I myself have tried to help them feel better when in reality I was as well a victim.
I think this movie needs more appreciation even more today because there are a lot of teenagers committing suicide each year and the percentage rate of suicidal deaths is constantly increasing and yeah this movie can help a teenager understand better about depression or mental illnesses but I feel like the movie as a whole can teach a lesson to not only teenagers but adults/parents as they might of struggled with depression in the past or are going through it right now. If you know someone who is dealing with a mental illness or has mental health issues or has suicidal thoughts, show them this movie but more importantly help them, find them the strength that they truly deserve. I wish I found help years ago and not try and hide the pain away but I felt alone in the situation and thought no one truly understood what I was going through when in reality there were people that were going through the same thing. If you or a loved one or anyone you know is having suicidal thoughts, call the National Suicide Prevention Hotline or please go find help whether it’s from a doctor, a family member, a friend or a teacher, anyone, please find help. The number is 800-273-8255. I know it may be scary but it’s better to get help than to be stuck in those dark thoughts or worse ending your own life at such a young age. This movie review is more for me to try and help people understand that life is worth living and you are not alone in this world, you are loved, cherish your life and continue to live and I promise you it may be hard and scary but it’s better to conquer your fears and finding help than letting your dark thoughts win. Everything will be okay soon, just keep fighting and I promise you too can win this battle.
Final Review: 3.8 out of 5 Stars, 78% out of 100.
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