7 Psychological Dramas From The Silver Screen

Psychological dramas challenge you and make you think about important issues. They can even trigger some serious existential reflection in the days after you watch them and it changed your mood. A good drama can really shake you up and leave an emotional mark.

Good dramas are real Socratic jewels. They make the audience think about some of life’s most important questions. In today’s article, we will share some excellent psychological dramas from different genres.

The psychological dramas that make you question society

In this category, we want to talk about two films that brilliantly portray what society and social expectations are doing to citizens.

Joker by Todd Phillips

This movie was wildly popular in 2019 and showed a glimpse of the strange world we would live in just months later. This is a world of inequality, an inadequate public health system and a lack of mental health services pushing citizens to the brink of collapse.

It’s so easy to connect and identify with Arthur Fleck, the main character, that it’s a little unsettling. In its madness you are reminded of so much of what you see in this capitalist society that preys on the weak. Here you are nobody unless you have material things.

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Therefore, Joker , directed by Todd Phillips, is a top-notch psychological drama. It exposes your awareness of the world, starting with general terms and narrowing down to the personal.

A year after the premiere, strange scenarios of the film emerge in the real world. Today it almost feels like we live in the real Gotham, full of chaos and sadness.

The Truman Show , directed by Peter Weir

The Netflix documentary The Social Dilemma left everyone dazed and confused, especially since it puts you right in the middle of the bullseye. It makes you believe that you are just a product of technology that uses psychology to control you and partially make you more unhappy.

That’s one of the reasons it’s so important to remember how people reacted to The Truman Show when it premiered on the big screen. Today it seems anything but a science fiction story.

The film challenges ideas about the limits of privacy. It asks whether social media is simply turning your life into a spectacle for the entertainment of others. Without a doubt, most people watching don’t know who you really are.

Psychological dramas: moral dilemmas

Certain films delve deeper into the moral dilemmas that affect us all. Their stories fill you with indignation and make you sad.

Vera Drake , directed by Mike Leigh

A stunning performance by Imelda Staunton earned her the Oscar for Best Actress. This film also won Best Director and Best Original Screenplay.

Vera Drake is a middle-aged woman who is devoted to her family and her ailing mother. Everyone around her adores her because she is noble, kind and committed to helping others.

Vera cleans houses like her job. Although she belongs to the lower classes, she is a lively, happy woman. Her family is close and her marriage is blessed with pure, solid love.

What her family doesn’t know (spoiler alert: viewers don’t know either), is that Vera also does clandestine abortions for free. She believes it is her duty to help women correct this small ‘delay’ of the monthly period. Vera doesn’t consider it an abortion, let alone see herself as someone who performs them.

In the film we see Vera helping women of all shapes, sizes and economic circumstances. They go to her because she treats them well and because she is efficient. Unfortunately, an incident exposes everything and you see the hypocrisy of a society that judges her instead of thanking her for what she does and how she does it.

The Sea Inside , directed by Alejandro Amenabar

This Spanish film classic is based on a true story that moved an entire nation. Javier Bardem plays Ramon Sampedro, a man paralyzed after a diving accident.

Sampedro no longer wanted to live in his condition, so he turns to his neighbor Rosa (Lola Dueñas) for help. He wants her to find him a lawyer to fight for his right to assisted suicide.

Beautifully acted and beautifully produced, the film touches on numerous moral issues, such as the rights of terminally ill people and the individual freedoms of all people. Assisted suicide is undoubtedly an ethical dilemma, depending on how and under what circumstances it is done.

Movies about abuse

The psychological dramas that have the most emotional impact are about abuse and maltreatment. They show the most terrifying side of humans, the side we never want to see of ourselves.

Sleepers , directed by Barry Levinson

Sleepers is part of a series of 90s movies that aren’t exactly masterpieces, but certainly have an impact. Despite the difficult subject matter, the incredible casting and avoidance of easy morbidity in some ways make it an ‘easy’ movie to watch.

John, Lorenzo, Michael and Tommy are four friends in a troubled New York neighborhood. Their support system and spiritual guide is Pastor Robert Carillo (Robert de Niro). Robert is like a social worker and father to the boys, who have a difficult family life.

One afternoon, the boys rob a heavy ice cream truck. Luck is not on their side that day. The ice cream truck is too heavy for them and eventually falls down the stairs of the subway, where it seriously injures an old man. That’s when their lives change.

The four boys end up in a boys’ home where they have experiences that no child should ever have. Years later, a murder and a lawsuit bring the four friends back together.

Psychological Dramas: Dancer in the Dark , directed by Lars von Trier

It’s hard to watch this Lars von Trier movie without it getting to you. Von Trier, himself a lover of psychological dramas, tried to outdo the rest with this intensely moving film.

Keep in mind that Björk had never acted in her life, which made the movie a bit of a gamble as 90% of the movie depends on her acting.

Fortunately, she was up to the situation. Björk proved to be not only a talented singer, but also a talented actress. Dancer in the Dark is a story of innocence, evil and greed and the ending certainly doesn’t disappoint.

Existential Psychological Dramas

Psychological dramas can cover multiple topics at once. Sometimes, however, it is the meaninglessness of existence itself that makes the film captivating.

The Pianist, directed by Roman Polanski

Wladyslaw Szpilman (Adrien Brody) is a pianist for a Jewish radio station in Poland, who sees how the start of World War II affects Warsaw. Szpilman is forced to enter the Jewish quarter in Warsaw, but is later separated from his family during Aktion Reinhard.

From then on until the prisoners are released from the concentration camp, Spilzman hides in various places in Warsaw. During that time we see what absolute desolation does to a person; devoid of anything that makes him human.

The Pianist is a reflection on the human capacity for cruelty when it comes to protecting ourselves. At the same time, it tells the story of a distraught man who finally finds meaning again through some simple piano notes.

The stories these films tell allow you to see the world in a different way and discover the subtle nuances of a different perspective. After all, movies aren’t just art or entertainment, they’re a way to learn important emotional lessons.