From Crying at Thunderbolts* to Creating My Own Scenes

A month of movies, mental health, and rediscovering creative courage

Welcome to Coffee with Coops! I’m glad you found me. I’m Coops, a workplace positive psychology wellbeing expert and a Thrivership Coach™. Coffee, cake, movies, and classical music are the ways to my heart.

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As it is the last weekend of the month, I am bringing you The Intermission🍿.

This month, I explored films that spotlight mental health, coinciding with Mental Health Awareness Week in the UK and Mental Health Month in the US. As always, there was a huge list to go through, of which I managed to get through a handful of movies.

The movies I watched were

• Silver Linings Playbook

• Inside Out

• A Beautiful Mind

• Thunderbolts*

Before we dive into the films, a quick personal update that connects to creativity and following dreams…

I decided to head back to school, actually drama school in London, and last week I started Screen Acting Classes. It is where I am heading right after writing this.

I know, I surprised myself. More to come at the end of this piece.

Silver Linings Playbook

First up is indie film Silver Linings Playbook, recommended by the lovely US wellbeing expert Laura D, who knows I love Jennifer Lawrence and who would play me, in a movie about my life.

This movie was released in 2012, and from what I remember, I watched it shortly after its release. Honestly, I didn’t enjoy it at the time. I felt it was too chaotic and too intense. Interestingly, this is all before I was diagnosed with mental ill-health conditions, before I was open about my recurring panic attacks. I used to experience bad episodes of mania and massive crashes. Maybe back then, it was too close to home. I also didn’t understand mental ill-health.

Without giving too much away, this is about a man with bipolar disorder and the journey through his condition, whilst exploring his relationships. I recently posted a clip of me talking about how healing doesn’t happen in a vacuum. This is evident with the character played by Bradley Cooper. Both the positive and negative impacts of the relationships around him. The way his old life continues as he returns to his parents’ home.

The title is a beautiful reminder of how we can look for the small moments of gratitude and good in life, no matter how hard and terrible. But that doesn’t make the tough times any less so.

The dancing scenes are a lovely addition and represent the importance of setting goals as part of the recovery process.

I loved this movie the second time around. The music is composed by Danny Elfman, an American Film Composer who is a legend! He has composed some of my favourite 80s movies, including Beetlejuice and Scrooged! He has worked extensively with Director Tim Burton, as well as on the first Mission: Impossible film, The Men in Black films, and many of the Marvel Cinematic Universe's films, including the Avengers and Spider-Man movies. If you love movies, I guarantee he has composed the music for some of your faves.

Inside Out

The 2015 Pixar animation film follows the inner workings of Riley’s mind as she comes of age and adapts to her family’s move to San Francisco. The movie took 5.5 years to make, on a budget of approximately $175 million. The team worked with psychologists and neuroscientists to make sure they were accurately portraying the mind, with the five personified emotions administering her thoughts and actions.

Joy, Sadness, Fear, Disgust and Anger are the five emotions, with Joy trying to act as Riley’s leader, creating havoc when trying to limit the influence of Sadness upon Riley. Even if animation isn’t your thing, it’s a beautiful film for all ages - a simple, powerful exploration of how the mind works and how our emotions interact. Riley’s imaginary friend Bing Bong appears to help Joy and then disappears again in the memory dump and it really brought back for me, Loki my imaginary friend.

The sequel Inside Out 2 was released last year (2024) with the introduction of a new main character narrative - anxiety and also the puberty alarm going off, as Riley becomes a teenager. Inside Out 2 speaks to some grown-up themes which means it attracted a wide audience and according to The Numbers, Inside Out 2 now is the highest-grossing animated film of all time at the domestic, international and worldwide box office.

A Beautiful Mind

A 2001 biographical drama about mathematician John Nash, a Nobel Laureate in Economics. Russell Crowe plays Nash and the film is directed by Ron Howard (Credits include Apollo 13, The Da Vinci Code, Solo: A Star Wars Story).

The film is based on a book written by Sylvia Nasar in 1998, titled A Beautiful Mind. The story starts following Nash, a brilliant but antisocial mathematics graduate student at Princeton University. After Nash accepts secretive work in cryptography, he becomes liable to a larger conspiracy and begins to question his reality.

It is a beautiful movie both love story and the impact of severe mental ill-health. There is for me a twist, which I had forgotten about until I watched it again, so I won’t reveal anything in case you haven’t watched it. As often with biographies there is some creative licence, but it is beautifully directed and it has a stellar cast.

James Horner composed the score for this movie and it is simply heavenly. Sharing with you this piece featuring the singer Charlotte Church.

Thunderbolts*

This is probably going to feel a little leftfield to include this and honestly it was an unexpected addition for me. I love the Marvel Universe, though like many, I’ve felt that some of the recent films lacked a bit of depth. If that is the right way to describe it.

Thunderbolts* or the New Avengers is one of the rawest explorations of mental health in a Marvel movie since the Iron Man movies. The day after watching Thunderbolts* I was chatting to a friend about it whilst we were in the sea about 6am in the morning. I asked my friend, “did you”…she finished my sentence with “cry?”. “YES!” we both said.

The movie covers bipolar disorder, depression, loneliness, suicidal thoughts, loss of meaning and purpose, the importance of connection and human contact. It also reminds of the darkness within all of us, as it gets the characters to confront their darkest corners of their pasts.

Without sounding too clichéd it really is a movie to remind us, that it’s okay not to be okay.

I picked the closing track because this is an epic 80’s song AND also features in one of my all-time favourite 80s movies Mannequin.

Revisiting these films reminded me that healing, creativity, and self-discovery rarely follow a straight line. Whether it’s dancing in a competition, navigating joy and sadness, or deciphering our own reality, stories help us feel seen.

And sometimes watching these movies even help to nudge us toward the next brave step in our story.

The Intermission🍿 Playlist

A soundtrack to reflect and recharge. This month’s additions are now live on our Spotify playlist - perfect for journaling, walking, or just zoning out.

Attending drama school has been equal parts teenage Coops’ dream come true and a long-awaited creative leap. Along with my radio presenting both of these are a great deal of fun. I was so nervous before my first class that I stood outside the building for five minutes, debating whether to go in or go home.

Will I one day be in an A24 production? On the big screen with Pedro, Florence, Tom or Elle - who knows?! Yet I promise to myself this, to continue to push the edges of what it means to be creative and the limits that I place on myself. If you have been reading Coffee with Coops since the start of the year, you know that my word of 2025 is UNSTOPPABLE. That’s how I feel right now.

Fridays are now a beautiful (long) day of creativity, from presenting the breakfast show Good Morning Chelmsford in the morning to 3 hours of class in the evenings.

A reminder for you to follow your dreams; you never know where they will lead.

Next month’s Intermission will be a special feature of a short-film which explores how to bring mental health stories to the screen in a positive, thoughtful way. I am very excited to share this one with you.

Photo by Jakob Owens on Unsplash

Calm with Coops

If you want the space of calm ahead of the start of summer, then do take the opportunity for the last day of the two week free trial of Coffee with Coops and join me for FREE on Tuesday evening. These sessions are a delight to teach, because they are so relaxing!!

No camera, no expectations, just you, in your own space to relax and reset.

Calm with Coops is like a cosy 1:1 chat with me.

The usual Coffee with Coops returns next week. I am hopefully watching the final Mission:Impossible this weekend and catching up on episodes of MobLand and Overcompensating.

PS What’s on your watch list, let me know below!

Have a great weekend.

Love Coops☕️💛