brain disorders movie reviews

Inside Out

9/8/2017

Teacher's Guide to Inside Out

When an 11-year old girl is uprooted to move with her parents, the cartoon character emotions in her mind must figure out how to work together to guide her through this difficult transition.

Riley is thrown for a loop when she and her parents move from Minnesota to San Francisco. Five primary emotions – happiness (joy), anger, disgust, sadness, and fear – appear as cartoon characters within Riley Andersen’s mind (“headquarters”). The emotions must figure out how to work together to guide her through this difficult transition. When Joy and Sadness get lost in Riley’s mind, Anger, Fear and Disgust are left to navigate Riley’s new experiences. Joy and Sadness finally return after their adventures through various aspects of Riley's memory, sleep and dreams.

Neuropsychological Review
Inside Out of Memory and Emotions
By Victoria A. Grunberg, M.S.

Inside Out (2015) is an entertaining cartoon film that demonstrates the emotional complexity and development of an 11-year old girl, Riley Andersen, as she experiences the stress of moving across the country with her parents and adjusting to a new school and new friends. From a neuropsychological perspective, the movie demonstrates several facts regarding the impact of emotions on memory, how sleep is related to memory consolidation, and the role of emotions for interpersonal functioning. This film appeals to all ages, and could be used to open discussions with children regarding emotions, challenging situations, and how to cope.

Insomnia

2/11/2015

An LA detective battles sleep deprivation while investigating a murder in a small town in Alaska where the sun never sets.

Veteran detective Will Dormer flies to Nightmute, Alaska to assist the local police force in an ongoing murder investigation. While trying to find the killer, detective Dormer battles sun filled nights that rob him of sleep. As Dormer’s mind becomes increasingly fatigued he must come to terms with a second crime as he struggles to differentiate between his waning consciousness and reality.

Neuropsychological Review
Just Let me Sleep
Steven M. Smith

As Insomnia begins we join detective Will Dormer, played by Al Pacino, early in his battle with insomnia and, possibly more importantly, anxiety. Throughout the opening credits, director Christopher Nolan uses fading and pulsating imagery to simulate the struggle of keeping one’s eyes open, effectively placing the viewer in the shoes of someone who is experiencing the side effects of extreme fatigue.

Inception

4/22/2013

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An expert dream thief must do the impossible task of implanting an idea into someone else’s sleeping mind.

Cobb is the best information extractor in the business. He steals valuable information from the subconscious during sleep, when it is believed the mind is most susceptible to threats. Cobb is given the opportunity to reunite with his children if he completes one last job that is said to be impossible. Instead of stealing information, Cobb must do the reverse and plant an idea into the target's mind. Cobb and his team travel deep into their target's dream levels to pull off this daunting task.

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Inside Out

Insomnia

Inception

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