COTC-Header-1600-x-800_crop 5_00000_crop

Characters on the Couch
Film & Television Blog

by Dr. Sandra Cohen

A 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 More about A REAL PAIN: To Numb or Not to Numb?

A 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…

Read More about A COMPLETE UNKNOWN: A “Free” Contrarian, But at What Price?

BLUE VELVET: Why Desire Goes Wrong

David Lynch’s troubling and sexually violent 1986 film Blue Velvet reveals the corruption and dark impulses under what seems to be a white picket fence kind of purity and innocence. In Lynch’s signature style, this jolting movie strips bare the confusing urges and compulsions people live with related to desire, need, and what is or…

Read More about BLUE VELVET: Why Desire Goes Wrong