Film
ASHLEY JUDD
7 Ways To Overcome Shame
After Sexual Harassment
Ashley Judd is speaking out. Good, because sexual harassment is damaging. You feel powerless. End up with a lot of unwarranted shame. You even blame yourself. But, when someone has power over you, of one kind or another, it’s hard to say, “No” – to report it, or to stand up for yourself. You might…
Read More
HE NAMED ME MALALA
A Father Gives A Daughter
Her Voice
Davis Guggenheim’s documentary film, He Named Me Malala, on the life of 18-year-old Pakistani Nobel Prize laureate and activist for the education of girls has opened in theaters to mixed reviews. I haven’t seen it yet, but I will. I’ve been thinking about the part a father plays in whether a daughter loves or hates…
Read More
SHYAMALAN’S THE VISIT
4 Signs Loss And Guilt
Are Too Scary To Feel
M. Night Shyamalan’s new psychological horror film, The Visit, has twists and turns and unexpected surprises that I wouldn’t think of revealing. And, of course, this film has one of Shyamalan’s shock endings – it wouldn’t be a Shyamalan film without it. But for me as a psychoanalyst, there’s something else of more interest. What…
Read More
MISTRESS AMERICA
Going Backward To Go Forward
That’s Psychoanalysis
Noah Baumbach and Greta Gerwig’s kooky and touching new film, Mistress America, gives us Brooke Cardenas (Greta Gerwig), a 30-year-old autodidact, full of life and ideas, but stuck. She can’t get her life off the ground. Brooke needs help, but help makes her feel small: “There’s nothing I don’t know about myself. That’s why I can’t…
Read More
JAKE GYLLENHAAL
DEMOLITION
Ways Not to Grieve
I just watched the trailer for Jake Gyllenhaal’s upcoming 2016 film, Demolition, about the aftermath of his character, Davis’s, sudden loss of his wife, Julia. Loss can take many forms. As the trailer shows, Davis unravels. He can’t pull himself together. His father-in-law tries to encourage him to rebuild his life. To do so, he…
Read More
99 HOMES
What Makes Someone Become
Who He Hates?
Alert: Possible Spoilers How can someone do exactly to other people what’s been done to him? That’s the big psychological question in Ramin Bahrani’s new film, 99 Homes. How can Dennis Nash (Andrew Garfield) become the right-hand man to the very real estate developer (Michael Shannon) who callously uses the housing market collapse to repossess and…
Read More