It's Kind of a Funny Story

It's Kind of a Funny Story lives up to it's name. I don't think an older audience can really grasp just how pointedly this film speaks to the new generation of over achievers. Growing up in the beginning of this educational standard shift and later realizing the quality of education I was recieving compared to others was a dramatic shock. Even though I never did exceptionally well in school, my grades were above average, leading me to assume a mediocer if not average education. Now at college, I'm realizing much of what I learned in high school and what it is that I learned and how it's important in my life.
Tagline: Sometimes what's in your head isn't as crazy as you think.
It's Kind of a Funny Story is a 2006 novel by American author Ned Vizzini. It follows a depressed teenager who becomes suicidal and checks himself into a psychiatric hospital. The book was inspired by Vizzini's own brief hospitalization for depression in November 2004. In the scene where Craig describes other classmates of his, when it shows him you can see he's reading the book Be More Chill by Ned Vizzini, who also wrote It's Kind of a Funny Story.
Craig, the narrator, is 15, and lives with his family in an upper-middle class Brooklyn neighborhood. He attends the prestigious Executive Pre-Professional High School, having studied arduously to win admission. Once admitted, however, he becomes overwhelmed by the school's intense academic pressure. His stress eventually manifests itself in an eating disorder, use of pot, affected sleep habits, and suicidal thoughts. After he stops taking medication prescribed by his psychiatrist, his depression builds until, unable to fend off his suicidal ideation, he calls 800-SUICIDE and is admitted to a nearby psychiatric hospital. He meets many other patients, some friendly, others reclusive or delusional, and is supported and encouraged by his family and school principal once they learn of his hospitalization. Craig meets a female patient, Noelle, who coped with a history of sexual abuse by cutting her face with scissors. In isolation from the outside world, and with help from Noelle, Craig confronts the sources of his anxiety and regains his health. During his recovery, Craig experiments with art, specifically stylized maps, and discovers he has a great deal of natural talent and ability. Once Craig has recovered, his counselor suggests he transfer to an art school, a thought that excites Craig. He returns home at novel's end having undergone a mental shift.
This film very much reminded me of Perks of Being A Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky and I think I'll go read the book version.
I think this film really reexamines the pressures and expectations we put on young people in our society, and it's wrong and it sucks and they are finding new and more destructive ways of dealing with it. When MTV is glorifying teenage pregnancy with it's own spot on cable TV and the rich kids use drugs and the poor kids use drugs and STDs are climbing along with teen pregnancy and religion no longer reforms and parents deny. We should all be talking to therapists, but the people who need to talk can't and the people who do talk are the ones causing the problems.