Words on Bathroom Walls

Words on Bathroom Walls is an American drama (2020) about a teenager named  Adam Petrazelli (Charlie Plummer) who suffers from schizophrenia. He moves to a new school after a psychotic break which leaves him alienated from his peers.

 Adam’s constant companions are his imaginary friends Rebecca (Anna Sophia Robb ) a hippy who wants him to be in tune with his feelings,  the bodyguard (Lobo Sebastian)  who protects him, Joaquin ( Devon Bostick) a sleazy bro and the darkness (Jared Bankins) a dark mist of negative energy.

Adam tries his best to ignore his imaginary people as they hinder him from being present in his everyday life. Adam is able to relax from his mental illness when he’s cooking. His dream is to go to culinary school to become a chef. He makes a friend at his new school called Maya (Taylor Russel) who has her own secrets.

I enjoyed watching this movie and thought it handled the subject matter sensitively. I hadn’t thought about schizophrenia before and how it could affect a young person. In the movie, Adam tries his best to ignore his delusions, but the other characters can see that he’s distracted. I can see how difficult it would be to ignore delusions and pretend that everything is okay. It would also be difficult forming relationships because you would be worried if they will accept you.

I thought the performances in this movie were wonderful. Charlie Plummer played Adam with a realistic vulnerability and had great chemistry with the rest of the cast. All the characters were complex and played brilliantly by the actors. Taylor Russel and Charlie Plummer had great chemistry.

I think this movie would be suitable to watch with family with older children or teenagers. As an educator, I would suggest it for a book and film study for English or wellbeing course.