2. Revolution # 9 (2001)
Michael Risley is a pretty normal guy. He has a girlfriend he loves, a good job, an appartment. Everything is ticking over nicely until he thinks that his co-workers are messing around with his desk. This paranoia and delusions escalate until his work performance deteriorates and he is fired. He is obsessed with a television advert which he feels is plotting his downfall. Friends and relatives become alienated and money runs out. Michael ends up in hospital - crappy, grimy, third rate hospitals that do nothing for him and only drive him madder. Unable to stand the mental torment anymore, Michael goes to a rooftop and some teenagers shout at him to jump... This film is one of the more realistic depictions of schizophrenia. It shows how the disease affects apparently normal people in a very naturalistic, cinema verite way that is almost like a documentary. The film has very believable characters with whom the viewer can identify and what it achieves on its budget is amazing. It is ultimately a very sad story and it shows that schizophrenia is like a malignant tumour of the mind - some people can take medication that acts like chemotherapy on the mind and their pain is eased. Others don't take medication and the tumour kills them (via suicide).