Movie

Lady Gaga's star ascends in A Star Is Born, and her journey has only begun. SaraKay Smullens looks at the person and the film with a social worker's eye.

Two films, "Boy Erased" and "The Miseducation of Cameron Post," expose harm of conversion therapy, or efforts to change a person's sexual orientation. SaraKay Smullens provides commentary on the films and history of these practices.

The film Beautiful Boy provides a real and raw portrayal of a father and son’s descent into the ravages of the son's addiction to drugs. It also provides important avenues for social workers to discuss addiction issues.

The characters in Shoplifters will continue to live with you. They can never be forgotten. The enormity of all they teach, now and upon reflection, is incalculable.

A 2-hour documentary that premiered May 7, 2019, during National Foster Care Awareness Month, the film "Foster" centers on the Los Angeles Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS), the largest county child protection agency in the U.S.

Social worker SaraKay Smullens reviews the film "The Last Black Man in San Francisco."

Film review of "The Public." Homeless patrons stage a sit-in in a public library to get out of the extreme cold conditions outside.

Billi and her family go to Changchun, under the guise of a family wedding, not letting on to their matriarch that she only has a short time to live. Review of "The Farewell" by SaraKay Smullens.

Film review: Adolescent and teen clients convinced me that I was wrong in my pre-judgment of Joker. The film exposes truths about the emotionally victimized and our country’s cruel and inadequate mental health awareness, services, and systems.

A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood portrays Fred ("Mr.") Rogers as an exquisite model for many of the skills and characteristics that are essential in social work.

SaraKay Smullens reviews the film "Marriage Story" from a social work perspective.

Review of the documentary film, Crip Camp.

Little Fires Everywhere shines a light on racism and myriad relational specifics involving gender issues, marriage, parenting, the inability to conceive a child, intercultural and interracial adoption, and the cost of lost dreams.

The Fall, available on Netflix and Amazon Prime, shines light on the human condition and the dangers of the inhibition to discuss a whole range of discomforting sexual desires that can seem to control one’s life.

Watching the documentary film Angry Inuk with your family could help set the stage for growth and healing in the new year. Read our review.

Promising Young Woman is not a film that our clients (or we) can turn to for direction in healing loss or trauma. Nor is it meant to be. Rather, it confronts myriad issues that social workers face ourselves and with our clients day in and day out.

Body Brokers is an unsettling film that reveals abuses that began to occur after the Affordable Care Act was signed in 2008, requiring every healthcare provider to cover treatment for substance use disorders.

Review of the film, Pieces of a Woman. SaraKay Smullens reviews from a social work point of view.

Mare of Easttown - Two Love Letters and a Serious Omission. SaraKay Smullens provides commentary on the popular HBO series Mare of Easttown.

Maid, an October 2021 release on Netflix, provides an opportunity to learn about domestic abuse, poverty, and social work. However, the series is not representative of all the complexities social workers see in real life.

SaraKay Smullens reviews the film Bruised, directed by and starring Halle Berry.

SaraKay Smullens reviews The Unforgivable, starring Sandra Bullock.

The empowerment, hope, and resilience that is demonstrated by Crip Camp is essential for social workers to know. Given the chance for self-determination, people will rise to the occasion, but the systems must permit it.

The New Social Worker's SaraKay Smullens reviews The Lost Daughter, nominated for three Academy Awards. The Lost Daughter confronts, among other questions: What does the phrase “natural mother” mean?

CODA, a film about a deaf family, is a portrait of the universality of the hopes, dreams, and challenges all families share, as well as a demonstration of what unabashed love is.

The God Committee follows deliberations of a hospital transplant committee making a difficult decision. With all of its flaws, it brings attention to issues that are important to social workers and could be used as a starting point for discussion.

“The 2022 film White Noise, written and directed by Noah Baumbach, is billed as a comedy-drama. But make no mistake: Baumbach’s achievement is a timely, deadly serious... brilliant depiction of life.” Read SaraKay’s review.

Based on a true story, Women Talking offers an “imagined response” to the drugging and rape of women and girls in a cult-like religious colony. SaraKay offers commentary and questions for reflection and discussion.

The film opens six months after Otto’s cherished wife Sonya has died. In flashbacks, we learn how Sonya and Otto met, all they loved about each other, and the crisis they faced together. Marisol and other neighbors take an interest in him.

Nominated for five Academy Awards and with the tag line "discomfort and joy," The Holdovers is a Christmas film and a Valentine, and a promise that despite the harshness of winter, spring will be ours.

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