Posts by Dr. Sandra E. Cohen
EVERYTHING EVERYWHERE
ALL AT ONCE
Breaking Out Of Someone Else’s Box
Who chooses what’s “right” for you? In the best of worlds, you do. But, if you’re afraid to trust your own voice, it can be very hard to believe that. Especially when there are people in your life, and other voices inside, who tell you they know the right answers. And, so, in Everything Everywhere…
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NOMADLAND
A Lonely Nomad’s Land of Loss
Loss can feel like a nowhere land of moving aimlessly from feeling to feeling, from place to place, inside your mind. Loss can make you feel like a lonely nomad. You’ve lost the home you know, with a person that you love. There is sadness, anger, and memories – as you grapple with the challenges…
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THE POWER OF THE DOG
Phil Burbank’s Cruelty
What He Hates in Himself
Jane Campion’s chilling new film, The Power of the Dog, has much to say about the adage that what we hate in others is what we can’t accept in ourselves. And, wow, does the character of Phil Burbank spell that axiom out in spades. Sure, he embodies everything there is about toxic masculinity. Yet, what…
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CODA
You’re Entitled to Your Own Life
(Even If Someone Needs You)
CODA, written and directed by Sian Heder, is a beautiful, heartwarming coming-of-age film with a happy ending. Not all difficult stories about trying to have your own life in the face of someone who needs you (read: your parents) end with so much understanding, acceptance, and support. It’s hard to break away and be yourself…
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PROMISING YOUNG WOMAN
Trauma Driven Obsession
It’s Not Healing
Emerald Fennell’s brilliantly disturbing and evocative film, Promising Young Woman, shows us one troubling aftermath of trauma. And, it’s all because no one helped. Cassie lost her very best friend (and only true soulmate) to suicide. Why? Because Nina couldn’t go on after a violent and repeated gang rape that seriously traumatized her. And, no…
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SOUND OF METAL
How Silence Stops A Man From Running
Ruben has been on the run for a long time. No one becomes a heroin addict unless there’s something too painful inside for him to stop, for even a moment, to hear (or feel). So, Ruben runs – with drugs, frantic hard metal drumming, and in his desperate love for his singer-girlfriend, Lou (Olivia Cooke).…
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