It's Kind of a Funny Story

Happy birthdays today to Bruno Mars, actress Sigourney Weaver, Matt Damon, Goosebumps author R.L. Stine, actor Chevy Chase, and many others.

Today happens to be the debut date for 2010 films It's Kind of a Funny Story, and Life as We Know It, 1997's Seven Years in Tibet, 1998's Beloved, and 1986's The Color of Money.

Now, before I go on, confession time.

I completely forgot to mention on last week's show my friend Paige Jaworowski and her husband Adam had their 11th wedding anniversary on Sunday, October 4th.

It won the observation of Elia Kazan, who cast her opposite Marlon Brando on, On the Waterfront, in a role coveted by many more experienced actresses.

The 1954 Budd Schulberg drama was nominated for 12 Oscars and won eight, including Best Picture, Actor, Director, and for Saint, Supporting Actress.

Some of her other films include the 1957 film version of A Hat Full of Rain, 1966's The Sandpiper, The Russians Are Coming, The Russians Are Coming, Because of Winn-Dixie, and many others.

Her very last big screen appearance was in the 2014 box office flop Winter's Tale.

I want to look at two more examples where navigating a character's internal struggle required an incredibly delicate touch.

Judy Blume's Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret, and Ned Vizzini's It's Kind of a Funny Story.

Story.Both are foundational coming-of-age texts dealing with deeply sensitive internal transitions.

Right.

Even Judy Blume herself called them the dream cast.

They used the warmth of human performance to soften the inherent awkwardness of the subject matter.

And that reliance on performance over stylization is exactly why the 2010 adaptation of It's Kind of a Funny Story worked so well.

Ned Vizzini wrote the novel based on his own real-world experiences checking into a psychiatric hospital as a teenager.