The new film Words on Bathroom Walls takes a unique, but charming, look at the world of teenage mental health. Adam already has it rough. His dad bailed, his mom is trying to keep their life together, and he’s in high school. Oh, and he starts off with undiagnosed schizophrenia which is leading him to see and hear things that aren’t there. The best part is after his first psychotic break and many attempts at treatment, he discovers he is “treatment resistant,” which means methods that work on most, do not work on Adam. After a psychotic break at school that leads to relentless bullying, Adam faces a new school and new kids. With culinary school dangling as a carrot, he has to hunker down and get through his senior year. His new friend Maya just may be the kick in the butt he needs to fight, even as life changes around them.
The film does an incredible job of making schizophrenia make sense to someone who hasn’t come across it before, and gives a sense of grace to those who understand it all too well. There are parts of this movie which will feel like a horror movie to some, but are the daily lives of some folks who suffer from schizophrenia.
Beth Grant is an absolute gem as Sister Peterson of Adam’s parochial school. To be fair though, what isn’t Beth Grant amazing in? Taylor Russell steals the screen as Maya, the incredibly intelligence valedictorian who wants to help Adam. Her acting is incredibly powerful, and believable. Charlie Plumber absolutely shines as Adam. The chemistry of Russell and Plumber together is worth watching this film more than once. Here’s the sentence I never thought I’d write; Walton Goggins made me cry, in the most perfect way. In short, the cast is absolute perfection from start to end.
Words on Bathroom Walls is a strangely good time, even when mental health and teenage poverty are the elephants in the room.
Words on Bathroom Walls comes to select theaters August 21, 2020.
