Mental health doesn’t always show up as a breakdown — sometimes, it looks like grief, burnout, silence, or survival. These 16 films put mental health front and center, whether through a raw portrayal of trauma, the quiet weight of depression, or the struggle to be heard and understood.
They don’t just tell stories — they hold space. For healing, for honesty, and for the messiness that comes with it.
The Other, Gold
Grief. Isolation. Pandemic burnout. The Other, Gold follows a Black woman in LA navigating the emotional aftershocks of losing her father during the pandemic. As she tries to reconnect with a former best friend, it becomes clear she’s not just mourning a person—she’s mourning a version of herself. It’s quiet, honest, and deeply relatable for anyone who’s ever felt emotionally stuck and trying to piece their way back to wholeness.
On the Count of Three
Two best friends make a pact to end their lives, but before they do, they spend one last day trying to tie up loose ends. It’s dark, raw, and surprisingly funny—pulling back the curtain on Black men and mental health in ways we rarely see.
Poppy Shakespeare
In the film Poppy Shakespeare, the titular character, played by Naomie Harris, is in denial of her mental disorder. However when she is put into a mental health care facility she and discovers more about her condition.
Out of Darkness
The 1994 film centers on Paulie Cooper (Diana Ross) a promising medical student whose career is cut short when she is diagnosed with severe paranoid schizophrenia. For 17 years, she struggles with the condition, being hospitalized dozens of times, exhausting the efforts of her mother (Ann Weldon) to keep her healthy and safe. Finally, an experimental drug is able to bring Paulie back from the precipice of insanity, but, as she returns to her medical studies, she is confronted by people’s fears and prejudices regarding her illness.
Frankie & Alice
Based on a true story, in the film, Halle Berry portrays a woman who suffers from a dissociative identity disorder. The disorder was caused by a traumatic incident from her childhood and has had a massive effect on her life. The movie showcases a medical diagnosis and proper psychiatric treatment, which is something the Black community needs to see as many don’t seek mental health treatment.
Silver Lining Playbook
Chris Tucker’s character is not a huge storyline but he is a black man who is a patient in a psychiatric hospital. Something we need to see more, so we can continue to destigmatize mental health treatment.
The Soloist
The movie The Soloist is the story of a gifted musician named Nathaniel Ayers (Jamie Foxx) whose mental illness drove him from the halls of The Juilliard School in New York to the living on Skid Row in Los Angeles. This film sheds light on the Black homeless community who is often over looked and many times dealing with mental issues.
All The Bright Places
The Netflix film is an adaptation of the YA novel of the same name. It follows two high school students who are facing either dealing with grief or mental health. The male lead, Finch (who was white in the book) is played by Justice Smith and he is a black young man with bipolar disorder.
The Secret She Kept
A successful woman is hiding a serious secret—she’s battling bipolar disorder. This film unpacks the stigma around mental illness in the Black community and the fear of being seen as “less than” for needing help.
Black Box
After surviving a car accident, a man with memory loss undergoes experimental treatment—but things get eerie when he starts remembering a life that may not be his. It’s sci-fi meets psychological thriller, with deep questions about identity and trauma.
The Alchemist Cookbook
A reclusive young Black man isolates himself in the woods, convinced he can unlock ancient knowledge—but is it enlightenment or a mental break? This lo-fi thriller blurs the lines between genius, paranoia, and psychosis.
Jagged Mind
Ever felt like you’re reliving the same red flags over and over again? In Jagged Mind, a woman finds herself stuck in a time loop with her seemingly perfect girlfriend—only to realize there’s something darker at play. It’s a psychological thriller with supernatural twists, but at its core, it’s about gaslighting, trauma bonding, and the emotional toll of toxic relationships. It explores how mental and emotional abuse can feel like being trapped—over and over again.
Repentance
Repentance starts as a self-help journey gone wrong. When a life coach takes on a client struggling with grief after a tragic loss, things spiral fast. Forest Whitaker plays the grieving man—and his performance is unnerving. What starts as spiritual healing turns into a psychological horror that unpacks suppressed trauma, untreated mental illness, and the desperation to find meaning in loss. It’s about what happens when pain goes unacknowledged for too long.
Bricked
After being diagnosed with a mental illness, a Black teen struggles to find his place—in school, in his family, and in his own head. It’s a quiet, powerful story about trying to stay afloat when your brain feels like the enemy.
For Colored Girls
Each woman in this ensemble carries her own trauma—abuse, depression, PTSD. This film doesn’t just acknowledge pain; it honors survival. It’s poetry in motion about the emotional battles Black women fight every day.
Waves
This one’s heavy. A tragedy shatters a Black family, especially the son under immense pressure to be perfect. What follows is a raw look at grief, guilt, and the long, nonlinear path to forgiveness and healing.
Antwone Fisher
A sailor with anger issues is ordered into therapy—but what unfolds is a heartbreaking and beautiful dive into childhood trauma, abandonment, and the transformative power of being heard.
Nightingale
A haunting one-man performance by David Oyelowo. Nightingale follows a war veteran spiraling into isolation and obsession, unraveling before our eyes. It’s a raw, intimate look at untreated mental illness, loneliness, and the silent struggles too many Black men face.
The Piano Lesson
At first glance, it’s a family drama about whether to keep or sell a cherished heirloom. But beneath the surface, The Piano Lesson is about grief, inherited trauma, and how Black families carry the weight of their past without ever truly talking about it. It’s not framed as a “mental health” story, but the silence, the ghosts (literal and emotional), and the generational tension all speak to the emotional weight many Black families carry — without the language or space to process it.
Crazy as Hell
When a psychiatrist starts filming his new job at a mental institution, he meets a patient who claims he’s the devil himself. What starts as a psychological game turns into a deeper exploration of ego, delusion, and the fine line between sanity and breakdown. It’s eerie, intense, and pushes you to think about what really makes someone “crazy.”