words on bathroom walls julia walton book review

With his dream on the line, Adam chooses not to take the meds, and in typical teenage fashion, he tries to hide it from his mom ( Molly Parker) and her new boyfriend Paul ( Walton Goggins), propelling himself down a precarious path. In Adam’s particular case, the meds impact his faculty to cook. But with every medication, there’s the possibility of side effects. Instantly, Adam is drawn to Maya’s energy and spirit, thus kindling another attraction that can’t be fully explained in words. Maya’s extraordinarily clever and self-assured, but she also runs a successful side gig writing essays for her well-heeled peers. It’s at this Catholic school where he meets quick-witted valedictorian Maya ( Taylor Russell). Even so, Adam is assigned a new experimental drug around the same time he’s accepted into a Catholic high school to conclude his senior year. As with many other mental illnesses, treatment is available, but Adam is rather impervious to medications. But, underneath his viable hankerings, Adam’s been diagnosed with schizophrenia following a psychotic break at his local high school, which results in his expulsion. With unwavering determination and copious potential, Adam is aspiring to become a chef. Over the course of the film, the intractable and understandably frustrated teen must learn to accept help from those who love him and want to support him.Īt first glance, Adam Petrazelli ( Charlie Plummer) appears to be your typical, socially inept teenager with considerable dreams, fiery hormones, and deep-seated emotions. Along with depicting a syrupy romance between two distressed teens, Thor Freudenthal’s Words on Bathroom Walls explores the thorny subject of mental health, particularly what a life with schizophrenia would look like, and how much stigma there is surrounding the illness.īased on Julia Walton’s novel of the same name and adapted by Nick Naveda, Words on Bathroom Walls is a compassionate, insightful, and commercially accessible adaptation that is able to destigmatize schizophrenia by focusing on a teenager who has no choice but to live with the illness around the time he must venture the hostile high school terrain. But with every dud that blemishes the silver screen, there’s a fresh spin on a story we’ve seen so many times before.

Hollywood has an obsession with the young adult genre, but Hollywood has many obsessions - from jump-scare horror to tragic romance to ribald comedy - and those obsessions often churn out forgettable duds.

Words on bathroom walls julia walton book review