Rama’s SCREEN

Enjoying your 4th of July? You’re gonna party til you’re crazy? Speaking of which, don’t forget that one of my favorite movies of the year hits theaters this Independence Day weekend, THE WACKNESS, which features Sir Ben Kingsley as a shrink/psychiatrist named Dr. Squires whose marriage is in peril and his idea of self-healing is done by smoking pot, drinking alcohol and taking lots and lots of drugs. In a way, cinema likes to make those who society deems as helpers become those that need help as well. Either that or they think by helping others, somehow it would bring them salvation from their own mess.

Dr. Squires played by Ben Kingsley in THE WACKNESS has an interesting practice method and a rather funny way of seeing life and curing his favorite patient, Luke Saphiro played by Josh Peck.
In his opinion, Sometimes it’s right to do the wrong things.
I don’t have money to go to psychiatrists and I never think I need one. So I’m not an expert in either psychology or the world of letting your emotions out to a total stranger.
But in celebration of Dr. Squires, here are some other movies unlikely Shrinks in recent years who I think are quite eccentric.

CHARLIE BARTLETT played by Anton Yelchin (Charlie Bartlett, 2007)

One of the coolest Teen movies not seen by many. Anton Yelchin is a promising young stars.
A high school teenager who becomes a psychiatrist to the student body. He’s a rich kid who discovers his own talent, the gift of listening and giving advice. He’d use the restroom as his session room. It would be like a confession booth. He would sit in one stall, and a student would enter the stall next to his and start ranting.
I’m just surprised none of them got sick from inhaling the poo and the piss, I mean it’s a restroom, for pit’s sake!

Dr. PEARL played by Alan Arkin (Eros, 2004)

An executive comes to talk to a psychiatrist. Turns out the shrink has not a care in the world for whatever the hell his patient is talking about. He’s the kind of shrink who would pretend to write something on his notepad when in fact he’s just scribbling some mumbo jumbo drawings. He’d sometimes engage in what his patients are babbling about just so that he could keep spying on somebody else outside the building instead. Overall, this short titled Equilibrium by director Steven Soderbergh has a weird storyline that some may not enjoy. But Alan Arkin’s funny performance is worth watching.

Dr. BEN SOBEL played by Billy Crystal (Analyze This, 1999)

This character is probably my personal favorite mainly because Billy Crystal is a comic genius and Robert De Niro is a great actor with a great sense of humor. Their collaboration is the perfect chemistry. Like the Odd Couple but with guns. Funny things usually happen when a character is confronted with many obstacles and dilemmas and he tackles every one of them in the most unlikely ways and still comes out the likable one because he accomplishes what he’s determined to do from the beginning stages of the problems. With the FBI, his fiance, the mafia rivals, Ben Sobel will try to dodge bullets while still fulfill his professional duty by helping a mobster gain some confidence back.
The result is one big hilarious comedy movie