Therapist Reacts to EXTREME ISOLATION in THE MARTIAN

just thought I'd open up with possibly the best cinematic use of the r-rated swear word ever [Laughter] welcome to cinema therapy while the world outside burns we are dreaming of living on another planet I'm Jonathan Dekker licensed therapist I'm from Arizona Mars looks like Arizona I feel a lot of home watching this movie and I nellen see right professional filmmaker and I'm from Utah which is actually used as the backdrop for Mars playing many a film half the time you need Mars yeah like a lot of the time so excellent why are we watching this right now well here in the United States we're just coming out of coronavirus lockdown maybe heading back into it who knows the skin virus is scary and weird but we've been locked down for three months it's really isolating who else feels isolated in this film well you got Matt Damon who is basically like Tom Hanks in castaway but in space so he's got to get scrappy to survive I'm gonna die here and Mars is not a forgiving mistress you can say that again but don't let's roll it okay what I love about this as far as like our own survival and dealing with hard things is he actually positions the planet Mars as an opponent yeah by talking smack to it uh-huh and now suddenly he's more on his home turf of I can figure out how to defeat this opponent that's trying to kill me I mean he's 50 million miles away from home he thinks he's totally alone he thinks we gave up on him and what does that do to a man psychologically the hell is he thinking what does it do to Amman psychologically and this is something that we've talked about that we're not sure the film goes far enough into because it seems more interested in being first entertaining and second inspirational right and so you do have a bit of a superhuman aspect to Matt Damon where his character here where he I don't think he mourns enough I don't think he rages enough I don't think he you know is hopeless and then gathers himself I think Ridley Scott says I mean the film touches on all of those things but it very much glosses over yeah it really wants to paint him as this all-american hero and basically you know the Robert Redford of his era and in that sense I mean it does a really good job it's a very fun film sure but I think what does this do - man psychologically they asked that question very somber very serious and it's a setup or a joke right right and which is fine they if a filmmakers decide what tone they want to tell but you could equally you could just easily make this same overall story and make it an intense psycho drama oh absolutely you could do the exactly the same arc in the same Nair of how he gets off and we you know but but they choose to make it peppy and fun and I can't fault him for it honestly I'm sure it will it made a lot more money because of that somebody made that movie it's called ad astra mmm and I hated it I see myself from the smile position well and and people take inspiration from things that aren't strictly speaking realistic but they do give them emotionally the charge they need to keep going oh sure no one's gonna be stuck on Mars and be this peppy no in-your-face drama but we take comfort in that we take comfort in the idea of we can do anything if we have a positive attitude and set ourselves to work and I don't disagree with the sentiment I think to be a little more realistic we would go further down anxiety and depression than we do here but I don't fault the filmmakers for wanting to inspire people in a fun entertaining way so here he is living his best life making tik-tok videos on Mars okay so he hates the disco music and now he's embracing the disco music I cannot tell you how many people I've seen post on social media they're like I succumbed I've run out of entertainment options in quarantine I finally watched spiceworld from 1997 the Spice Girls movie and it was horrible but I needed something like so he's leaning into this right we we all find ourselves and and you start like what happens if you run out of food you start to eat the things that you never thought you'd eat exactly Oh [Music] recycling their own all the filth from everybody else for fertilizer you know gosh I do like in this though too there are tasks that we definitely would rather not do in our lives that frankly you just got to do yeah like there are certain places you got to wear a mask you don't want to wear a mask but nobody wants to wear a mask masks aren't fun but it's like come on let's let's take care of each other let's take care of ourselves and just put the mask on our service mission here was supposed to last so you can hear the music here is worth the food that's for six people is just hopeful if you're paying attention the piano is actually reverse notice my rations so he's taking a semi sad theme turned it into a major chord and then reverse notes which very subtly is telling you I'm pulling myself out of this I never would have noticed that I'm really honest Mars will come to fear my botany powers once again Mars is my opponent yep this is after the explosion that has killed all of his crops frozen all of his dirt he can't grow anything yeah so these are the ones that were safely tucked away he's the ones that are safely tucked away and he's terrified right now because there's a storm just like the one that nearly killed him and trapped him on Mars that's blowing against his habitat that just has a plastic cover on the outside of it you guys have pulled out me he's trying to distract himself just focus on the task at hand yeah not think about the fact that I'm just about to get sucked out into the vacuum of Mars yeah and so he's counting potatoes if I'm shooting what could be two free-throws to either tie the game win the game or lose the game and there's a several there's a thousand people behind the backboard and they're waving their little balloons and screaming at me I could think about I'm this is being televised on national television all my friends and family are seeing this everybody's watching this my team's counting on me all the work we've put in my entire life to get to the final four right and if I think about all that it's too big and I'm there's no avoiding I will choke I will know and a sports psychologist will tell you to think about what who how many free throws have I hit think about though it's just the shot it's just a shot and that's what he's doing like because if he really lets it in game over yeah and so he's focusing and he's doing that it's it's one of the again you know you said we not realistically portray the amount of trauma that he's gone through that is a great scene that shows some of the trauma and and Matt Damon does a great job of keeping it subtle but really letting you in and seeing like I am absolutely terrified well some of the best acting is small yeah right because when you show like abject terror versus somebody who's I really far more to a character who's trying to keep it together and the terror is showing through yeah and they can't you know fight it back so no you're right point is I'm not cold anymore and sure I could choose to think about the fact that I'm warm because I have a decaying radioactive isotope riding right behind me but right now I got bigger problems on my hands well and so the thing to take away from this is there are things that you shouldn't ignore because you can do something about them right but if you can't do something about them it doesn't help to dwell on them right right if you could keep warm with the blanket then it would be like no go ahead and put that decaying radioactive isotope away right and do something better but since this is his option is this or death you know it's like I know people who are being treated with chemo and it's like if I had a way to not be treated with chemo I would do that but since I am I'm gonna focus on this or I'm gonna focus on that or I'm gonna have a good sense of humor about it so sorry we left it behind Mars so this is the first time he's been able to communicate with his crew he's been talking to NASA for several months at this point but he's never spoken with the crew yet oh dear Martinez Mars is fine is still what it had a little snide little buddies Mosely almost command the emotion is evident on his face and again it's you know Matt Damon is not playing a huge it's he's keeping it subtle but there's there's a lot happening every day yeah the the sheer joy of connections even if it's sarcastic connection you know some people don't speak sarcasm or some people use it as a weapon right but sarcasm properly deployed I for people who struggle with vulnerability it's a way to express affection yeah maybe not struggle maybe that's not even the right phrase maybe that's just how they communicate some people die I'm gonna get that way yeah and and there can be tremendous warmth in teasing and giving each other crap about two minutes what day are you doing down there I'm good I'm anxious to get up - thanks for coming back for me some serious geez so it's okay to pass out here in Martinez his hands though well tell that no barrel rules using sarcasm I love in Damon's performance there we went he's so close to the finish line is when he finally gets choked up and you know and nervous and I I think of there have been so there been several times my life sometime I'll tell you about the story of the guy with a butcher knife and his wife and we talked him into giving us a knife giving us the knife and not hurting his wife I'll tell you that story sometime Wow yeah um but but it was a situation where I was completely calm this was not in therapy this is just a life experience where I was completely calm and cool like the whole time when I should have been freaking out and then the moment it was over and walked away from it shakes yeah no I uncontrollable shaking and just fell apart sounds like you've had similar experiences yeah been there had and you see that here like he has had to be strong for so long and he's had to be focused for so long he can't let it in because at this point he's strapped into a chair and he has no controller and he he can't do anything else at this point yeah for him it's it's wine downtime yeah and he's and he's got other people now so it's not just him and he can actually kind of let it in and it rushes in hard and it's it's a bit bigger acting from Damon then we've seen the rest of the film when it comes to emotion because it's been more restrained but it's not it's not the wrong acting choice for where he's at in his journey like that would be where it overwhelms him yeah well and and like you were talking about I don't know viewers if you've ever experienced the thing that Jono was talking about where you are in an incredibly intense situation you're completely calm and then you let go and you get the shakes afterwards that adrenaline rush it either the adrenaline hits you or it fades and just lose control and in my case I felt terror after like once it was done as like holy crap that was terrified yeah and it's I hope you never have to it's that but at the same time you know the choices that matt damon is making there seem big but they're not yeah physically I I can tell you when those things have happened to me what he's doing there is much more subtle than the than the reality well he's like yeah it's it's you just completely at some point everything's gonna go south on you everything's gonna go south and you're gonna say this is it this is how I end now you can either accept that or you can get to work that's all it is you just begin so I wanted to talk to you about they do the math you solve one problem and you solve the next because it seems like really great enough problems you get to come home is it psychologically all right the advice is not just applicable but is it is it psychologically conceivable to in your life whatever your issues may be you're probably not gonna be trapped on Mars yeah but whatever your issues are is that the approach or there is wisdom and danger in the rhetoric that is that caps this film candidly everything's gonna go south and you could think this is it I'm gonna this is how I end or you can get to work do the math figure it out the truth of it and the positive thing about it is if you give in to despair then you stop looking for solutions right and I'm not talking about feeling despair I think though you have to have let those moments run their course the danger of the idea of the ideology here though is if you just work hard at it and don't give up you can solve any problem and there are problems that are unsolvable right if I have terminal cancer I can take steps and play the odds and it might go well for me but I can't willpower think or science my way out of it right this movie kind of paused it's a something different than radical acceptance this idea of we can overcome anything USA USA yeah it's such an American thing well it's it's it's a double-edged sword because it's one of the best things about America and that's also one of the things that one of our you just failings yeah yeah for sure look at the the space race and getting to the moon like that whole idea I that whole spirit is what God is that a whole belief but sometimes you have to accept the reality that's presented to you not all sometimes all the time you accept the reality that's presented to you and you do the absolute best you can with that in his case the absolute best he could do as a genius highly educated highly trained botanist astronaut if I run the hydrazine over an Iridium catalyst it'll separate into n2 and h2 with a team of people working their butts off at a home for him your Marsh it's better than if somehow I own it up on Mars yeah how long would you have lasted not long not long at all and there's there is no do the math if I don't know the math and I have no way of learning the math right the point is I do think we can and we can overcome seemingly insurmountable things but sometimes the best we can do is accept our situation with dignity and see how much good we can do within it and on that uplifting note this has been cinema therapy Jonathan Dekker has been reacting to the Martian and what a reaction it was thank you thank you very much if you would like to meet with me I do a free 15 minute consultation link in the description you want to rent or buy the Martian link is in the description we get a little sweet kickback that helps us to Purdue I kickback we're an affiliate man we're yeah we're an affiliate we get we get affiliate money how much but it helps us to produce the show where can they find us if you would like to find us on social media go to at therapy underscore cinema if you would like to subscribe to this channel I would like you to subscribe to this channel and click the bell because then you'll get notifications and you'll know when we post mm-hmm and you know you want more of this so until next time recycle your own defecation you Mars and watch movies yep I'm Nellie we'll we'll be hilarious especially because that was my genuine reaction [Music]

Channel: Cinema Therapy

Views: 847,206

Keywords: cinematherapy, cinema therapy, mental health, counseling, therapy, mental health therapy, Jonathan Decker, Alan Seawright, the martian, matt damon, ridley scott, andy weir, andy weir the martian, jono decker, therapist reacts, the martian movie, movie therapy, isolation, psychology, psychologist reacts, michael pena, chiwetel ejiofor, Jessica chastain, sarcasm, nasa, jeff daniels, the martian movie clip, sci-fi

Id: Wzg6-imIReo

Length: 17min 20sec (1040 seconds)

Published: Thu Jul 09 2020