***

Bad Words-sp  This is  Jason Bateman’s directorial debut starring Jason Bateman. It can be described as a mean or subversive comedy. The main character says and does cruel things to other people including a bunch of preteen kids which although they are “funny” they are not very nice.We meet Guy Trilby (Bateman) as a 40 year old guy who is entering the national spelling bee contest which he is determined to win and claims the right to be in it since he meets the criteria of never completing the 8^th grade.He is accompanied by a reporter (Kathryn Hahn)  doing a story about his endeavor for a web site. He overcomes the objections of Dr. Bernice Deagan  (Allison Janney), one of the administrators, and confronts the founder of the contest, Dr. Bowman(Phillip Baker Hall), who are both furious at him, as are all the parents of the young other contestants. Trilby plays distracting mean tricks on some of the kids to get them eliminated from the competition. He does befriend one of the kids, 10 year old Indian boy Chaitanya Chopra with whom there is a hint that he identifies with him. We see terrific chemistry between the two and a great acting job by a young boy by the name of Rohan Chand. And now for an announcement SPOILER ALERT which is necessary although we probably knew the secret for 1/5 of the film and still enjoyed it. The question, of course, is why would a 40 year old man undertake this mission? The answer has something to do with the fact that we learn that the founder of the contest, Dr. Bowman, actually once as a traveling salesman met Philby’s  mother and became his biological father but never stayed around and of course does not know this fact. Philby had found this out recently just before  his mother died and now is on the mission to screw up the good doctor’s prestigious spelling contest. In the end this makes for an interesting, funny and ultimately a feel good movie that many people will enjoy seeing.  But his film fascinated once of us (MB)  because we have observed some variation of this theme is numerous movies played out in different ways, as well as having seen it in several real life situations. But in each case the motivation and the actions of the person searching for his or her biological parent or child is different. It certainly is not always vindictive as in this story and sometimes it is to establish a meaningful connection. Here are some films and our reviews where this was the main theme:

Philomena -Elderly British woman who had child out of wedlock in convent goes to US to find out what happened to him. Stars Oscar nominated Judy Dench

The Kids Are All Right– Two lesbian parents are raising two teenage kids who decide to search out their sperm donor biological dad. Annette Bening, Julianne Moore and Mark Ruffalo

People Like Us – A man and woman never realized they were from the same parent Elizabeth Banks , Chris Pine and Michelle Pfeiffer

Stories We Tell – Documentary by a woman  who uncovers secrets of her family and that she was not her father’s child. Sarah Polley

Admission– Assistant Dean of Admissions realizes an applicant is her child given up at birth- Tina Fey, Lily Tomlin and Pail Rudd

Mother and Child   Mother child relationships . Children given up for adoption and fantasies of children who want  to reunite with their mother. Annette Bening and Noemi Watts

I have also written about three cases from real life in my PsychiatryTalk.com blog  (http://www.psychiatrytalk.com/2012/07/discussion-of-the-phenomena-of-unknown-family-members/)       (2014)

 

****

Admission –sp   When a movie starts with Tina Fey playing an Assistant Dean of Admissions at Princeton  and Paul Rudd as a teacher bent on getting one of his students accepted who has poor grades but near perfect scores on all the tests, you might imagine we are going to see a great comedy and satire of the whole admissions process. And that it was. Who among you is not familiar with dance of students, their parents and their counselors as they try to present the applicant in his or her best light whether it be some special kindergarten class, school or class for “ the gifted”, most private schools and “ the best college” possible.  When it is a Princeton multiply the frenzy by at least ten. Add to this mix the unforgettable character actor Wallace Shawn as the Dean of Admissions and Lily Tomlin playing the feminist mother of Tina Fey’s character with a tattoo on her arm saying “ Bella” (Abzug we presume). But actually the film was much more than a satiric comedy. It very poignantly dealt with issues of children out of wedlock , wanted and unwanted. It examined how people establish relationships, fall in and out of love and how parents sometimes have to choose a path which may be best for themselves or their child.

One of us writes a blog on psychiatry and mental health topics. The most popular piece by far in regard to readership in the past three years was one on the topic of unknown family members. It discussed the need to find a biological parent and how people respond when they meet a previously unknown parent or child. This topic has been the subject of other films in the recent past and was one of the central themes of this movie. Director and Producer Paul Weitz who is an  unlisted script contributor, along with Karen Croner who  wrote the screen play,  very skillfully and successfully weaved comedy and satire at the same time that they presented a very sensitive study of these real human conflicts.(2013)