Archive for March 2025
NICKEL BOYS: Holding On to Your Self Even When Abused
How do you hold onto yourself amid threat, abuse, and constant attempts to make you feel “less than?” Elwood Curtis does, in RaMell Ross’s powerful, disturbing, and timely 2024 film, Nickel Boys. Abuse can tear a person down. Create hopelessness, despair, and resignation. Repeated abuse, with no way to protect yourself, makes it difficult for…
Read MoreTHE SUBSTANCE: A Sad Gory Story of a Woman’s Self-Hate
Elizabeth Sparkle, an aging yet beautiful actress, hates herself. That’s why The Substance is a sad, gory story of a woman’s self-hate. Self-loathing always stems from early trauma. And, both childhood trauma and self-hate are devastating. You never feel good enough, are vulnerable to feelings of rejection, and do everything you can to prove you’re…
Read MoreA REAL PAIN: To Numb or Not to Numb?
Numbing pain is not a conscious choice. It’s a common survival strategy, a self-protection from emotional overwhelm, during and after trauma. And, it is often passed down for generations. Take cousins Benji and Dave, for example, in Jesse Eisenberg’s film, A Real Pain. They both struggle with their feelings in very different ways, revealed in…
Read MoreA COMPLETE UNKNOWN: A “Free” Contrarian, But at What Price?
A Complete Unknown is …yes … Bob Dylan – even though I can’t completely see Timothy Chalamet as Bob. The music is undoubtedly Dylan and, although I wouldn’t presume to speak to Bob Dylan’s psychology, this film tells us volumes about someone bent on (personal) “freedom” at any price. Especially the cost of alienating friends…
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