The great thing about genre films and film festivals like Fantasia 2022 or SXSW (where Hypochondriac premiered) is you never know what you’re going to get. Mainstream cinema is great and all, but more often than not, the films pumping out are much the same thing over and over. Hypochondriac’s angle is that the story revolves around a central character that is going through a mental breakdown. It gestures toward the thought that this story is a real story too, not something completely fabricated.
Writer-director Addison Heimann’s directorial debut feature film introduces Will as a producer of high-end ceramics. His boss Blossom (Madeline Zima) seems like a complete pain in the behind. However, overall Will is completely standing on his own two feet. He lives with his boyfriend Luke (Devon Graye) and it’s within this relationship that we get an indication of cracks under the surface. Luke wants in on his life story and as flashbacks of what happened to Luke are plonked unceremoniously in front of us there is plenty of reasons why Will doesn’t want to open up.
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Like most personal traumas though, the past always catches up with us. In this instance, Will had told his beloved that his mother was dead. By this time we know, she has been locked up in a mental institution for quite some time. Why? Because when Will was a teenager, his mother tried to “save him” by strangling him. Despite being the instigator of her own incarceration, seeing as she checked herself in after the event, years later her release sees her climb straight back onto the Will wagon with a total immersion into his life.
Hypochondriac feels like a really personal experience. There are moments when the more nuanced inflections of mental illness stigmas are flitted out in front of us. Will visits a continuous stream of doctors, knowing full well his symptoms point to a multitude of prognoses. Time after time he is told that “stress can do funny things to us” “and that he should “try therapy” but that most of them will come up with a rudimentary test to conclude Will is in fact healthy as an ox. In another example, Will goes to his boss Blossom, to get some time off. Blossom is quick to point out that he is replaceable and if he needs time off he will likely lose his job. In the wake of this information, Will quickly descends by having an episode and sticks his arms in a kiln trying to get away from his wolf.
Is There Something Wrong With Will?
There is plenty to like about Hypochondriac as a foray into what it might be like to suffer from what I assume is inherited schizophrenia. How not wanting to tell people would be just as confusing as what happens if you do. The film leaves plenty to digest at its conclusion too. Without spoiling too much, the absence of a complete resolution only cements the thought that mental illness isn’t something you just get over. It’s with you always.
Hypochondriac is rated
3.5 not a rabbit, it’s a wolf out of 5
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Where to Watch Hypochondriac
Hypochondriac will release to US theaters on July 29th. After that, you can watch it on VOD starting August 4th, 2022. Distributed by XYZ Films.
Written and directed by Addison Heimann.
Hypochondriac movie cast:
- Zach Villa
- Devon Graye
- Madeline Zima
- Yumarie Morales
- Chris Doubek
- Marlene Forte
