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Web Video / Cinema Therapy

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Making sense of life, one blockbuster at a time.

Alan: Hello and welcome to Cinema Therapy! I'm Alan Seawright: Professional filmmaker, and I need therapy.
Jonathan: And I'm Jonathan Decker: Licensed therapist and I love movies.

Cinema Therapy is a YouTube series in which licensed therapist Jonathan Decker and (unlicensed) professional filmmaker Alan Seawright examine different movies and their characters through the lens of, well, a therapist. They tend to focus on issues that impact relationships, but will branch out into other topics regarding mental health as well. Typically, they will either discuss a film that they both love or Jonathan will react as a therapist to a film suggested by Alan.

There are a few different formats their episodes take:

  • "Therapist Reacts to [movie title]", in which a movie is discussed from a psychotherapeutic viewpoint.
  • "Psychology of a Hero" / "Villain Therapy", which are character-focused on either a hero or villain character, and in which they often show how a character exhibits characteristics of a certain psychological condition or psychiatric diagnosis. For example they talked about how Anakin Skywalker from Star Wars exhibits traits of Borderline Personality Disorder.note  In a rare case, a character got both a vilain and a hero episode/treatment: Snape from the Harry Potter'' universe.
  • "Movie Couple Therapy", in which the focus is on a love relationship between major characters in a movie. Since Jonathan's specialization is family and relationship therapy, specifically, it makes sense to dedicate some episodes to this subject.
  • Other episodes, which are more loosely-based and focus on a psychological/psychotherapy aspect while explaining it with a movie, a franchise, or more rarely, a genre (like the "10 Tropes I Hate about Rom-Coms" episode).

Note that Alan and Jonathan are aware of the concept of tropes, frequently mentioning them in general and sometimes even pointing out specific ones when they occur. They don't do this using the specific TV Tropes names for them, though, so it's unclear if they are aware of the existence of TV Tropes.

Not to be confused with actual cinema therapy, which is a form of therapy in real life.

Their channel can be accessed here.

     Works analyzed to date 

    Specific characters analyzed to date 

This show provides examples of:

  • Action Film, Quiet Drama Scene: Inverted in the Die Hard review, where they interrupt thoughtful analyses of the lead's romantic relationship with action scenes.
  • Adoption Angst: Discussed during their analysis of Loki.
  • Affectionate Nickname: Alan frequently calls Jonathan "Jono."
  • Age-Gap Romance: Discussed in the James Bond reviews when noting Bond's tendency to go for much younger women (to the point where Roger Moore actually quit the role in protest). Jonathan says that he has personally known plenty of relationships like this that work fine because the relationship is built on the individuals rather than their age, but if someone is actively seeking people much younger than them, it's a problem.
  • Batman Grabs a Gun: According to Jonathan, a major rule of therapy is to never tell people what to do, just help them see their options and guide them through it. He's only had to break this rule once, when he told a woman she absolutely had to leave or her partner might kill her.
  • Berserk Button: In the video for The Notebook, Alan reveals that he's done projects with geese and has developed a deep hatred of them. When the main characters go through a pond of geese, he's treating it like The Birds and cursing at the ever-increasing amount of geese.
    Alan: Geese have stolen God's light!
  • Beyond the Impossible: Played for laughs in their The Nativity Story review, where Alan claims that Oscar Isaac is such a great actor that he even praises a scene where he's asleep.
  • Break His Heart to Save Him: Thoroughly deconstructed and smashed to pieces in their New Moon review, where they agree that the whole idea of hurting someone rather than being honest with them is inherently abusive. Alan adds that while the person doing it claims it's "for their own good", it never actually makes things better and only serves to assuage their guilty conscience.
  • Breather Episode:
    • Therapist Reacts to Gilderoy Lockhart is one of the less emotionally intense episodes; while there is some serious analysis of how Lockhart conforms to narcissism and how even one who seems like a harmless idiot can get nasty when their delusions are challenged, the vast majority of the episode is Jonathan and Alan fanboying over the hilarity of the character and the performance of Kenneth Branagh.
    • Therapist Reacts to Raiders of the Lost Ark is basically one long excuse for them to enjoy watching Indiana Jones and Marion, with Alan intervening to talk about how much he loves the making of these movies.
  • Brief Accent Imitation:
    • The analyses of Brave and How to Train Your Dragon prompt Alan and Jonathon to frequently do their best Scottish accents.
    • During How to Train Your Dragon, Alan also does an impression of Gerard Butler and Jonathan does Jay Baruchel and Jar Jar Binks, the latter of which Alan tells the audience to pretend didn't happen and forbids Jonathan from doing again.
    • Jonathan and Alan do spot-on imitations of Andy Serkis' Gollum voice throughout their episode on said character.
    • They also constantly imitate Alan Rickman's Snape voice in his episode.
  • The Cassandra/Cassandra Truth: Name-dropped and discussed during the review of Train to Busan regarding the homeless man, who is the first to warn the main characters about the zombies but is disregarded as a madman who sneaked onto the train.
  • Censored for Comedy: In the Kissing Booth review, Alan makes fun of the movie's Fanservice by opening the top two buttons of his shirt, which is then pixellated out while Jono and Sophie react in mock horror.
  • Christmas Episode: They had five in a row with How the Grinch Stole Christmas!, Die Hard*, Elf, The Nativity Story and It's a Wonderful Life.
  • Confirmation Bias: In-Universe. Discussed in their Wonder Woman (2017) by comparing Diana to the villain Ares, who has always believed that Humans Are Bastards and ignores any evidence that contradicts this. Diana, on the other hand, accepts that she was wrong about certain aspects of humanity and develops a more well-rounded worldview.
  • Content Warnings:
    • Used for the first time in the It review, in which viewers are warned of upcoming abuse scenes that may trigger some people.
    • The review for Promising Young Woman also had warnings for sexual assault since it's a movie about a woman avenging her friend's rape.
  • Cool and Unusual Punishment: Jonathan jokes that he's being "victimized" by Alan in Part 1 of their series on The Twilight Saga because, as a relationship therapist, he can't stand watching what's happening in the movie.
    Jonathan: But to me, this is nails on a blackboard. Because these people need my help, and they're not asking me for it. So I can't give it to them.
  • Cope by Pretending: Analyzed in WandaVision.
  • Cultural Cringe: Downplayed. Alan is a Christian who nonetheless hates most Christian movies for their poor filmmaking. He does concede to liking Joseph and Mary's storyline in The Nativity Story, but since it's only one third of the movie, it's still bad overall. Defied with The Prince of Egypt, as both agree that it's an excellent film. (Though it's worth noting that the movie has both Jewish and Muslim influences as well as Christian.)
  • Diagnosed by the Audience: Invoked. Their "Psychology" videos involves Jonathan Decker psycho-analyzing the characters or scenes that the video focuses on and how they can be treated.
  • Evil vs. Evil: While discussing Mean Girls, it becomes clear that while there are multiple factions warring within the school, all are antagonistic in one way or another, and ultimately the closest thing the film has to a Hero Protagonist is Ms. Norbury.
  • Fan Disservice:
    • When they're talking about John and Judy's plotline in Love Actually, Alan says that filming sex scenes is the least sexy thing in human history. It's either too cold or too hot, there's always at least 10 to 15 people on set if not dozens, and all of those people are professionally judging and nitpicking you.
    • A context-dependent one in The Kissing Booth. The film's Fanservice is targeted towards teenagers, but Alan and Jonathan are middle-aged men, so the film ogling teenagers just feels disgusting.
  • Gaslighting: Discussed in their Tangled video; they break down all the ways that Mother Gothel is an example of this trope.
  • Good Feels Good: Pointed out as part of examining Indiana Jones' character growth through the series. Starting young and idealistic in the opening of The Last Crusade, being extremely jaded by the time of Temple of Doom. Then Indy makes the choice to rescue all the child slaves from Kali's temple, and the look of unvarnished joy on his face as he unlocks the kids' shackles show, in CT's minds, Indy rediscovering in part his hope and optimism, he's desire to help people instead of just chase "fortune and glory."
  • Good Is Boring: Frequently discussed, along with the True Love Is Boring trope. They find it to be poor writing, since there's no real reason good characters and relationships have to be boring besides the writer being lazy.
    Jonathan: Sometimes good people are boring, because they're boring. Not because they're good.
  • Halloween Episode: They had two in 2020 with The Invisible Man (2020) and The Thing (1982), and two in 2021 with It (2017) and The Addams Family.
  • Happily Married:
    • Since Jonathan is a relationship therapist, a good amount of their videos are dedicated to breaking down healthy romantic relationships and what makes them tick, and even those that aren't centered around the topic will spend some time appreciating the relationship.
    • The video for The Addams Family analyzes how well this trope is represented in the movie.
  • Hard Truth Aesop: Happens quite a lot, since part of the show is about having a licensed therapist unpack emotionally difficult lessons some films have to offer, and help viewers process their uncomfortable reactions in a more productive way.
    • They often praise Pixar for doing this. In their review of Inside Out, they discuss how society likes to act like joyful and sorrowful emotions are always completely separate, and joy is always inherently good while sorrow is always inherently bad. But they argue this is far from true, as people need the invokedCatharsis Factor of being able to cry or grieve in order to process negative experiences, and many memories can feel Bittersweet.
    • In their review of A Silent Voice, Jonathan discusses how most people like to write off bullies as just bad people who deserve to be shunned and not given a second thought, but argues that bullies are people too; that they deserve to have their humanity recognized and their grief, sorrow, and guilt acknowledged. Not only that, but Jonathan argues that most people have the potential to do awful things, so the impulse to write off bullies as just uniquely bad people is a way to scapegoat them for the awful things we're all capable of doing.
  • Helpful Hallucination: Discussed in one of their The Rise of Skywalker videos in regards to Kylo's conversation with his father. According to Jonathan, imagining conversations with someone else is in fact completely normal and can even be psychologically beneficial, as it helps the person sort out their emotions and thoughts in a safe place.
  • Hypocritical Heartwarming: The trope itself is briefly brought up in their Mean Girls video, insofar as Jonathan don't believe Janis should get a free pass to call Damian "too gay to function" just because they're friends.
    Jonathan: And later on, it's like, "It's only okay if I say that." But is it really okay?
  • Heterosexual Life-Partners: Alan and Jonathan have known each other since college and their close friendship is the heart of the show. Jonathan even calls Alan his 'movie-wife.'
  • Hypocritical Humor: In their video about Aragorn and toxic masculinity, they poke fun at Alan's tendency to cry during Boromir's death, and note that this directly goes against the point that they're trying to make about encouraging men to express their emotions.
  • I Can Change My Beloved: Defied. Jonathan notes that he meets a lot of people who believe that they can change their partner or that their partner being cruel to everyone but them is a good thing, but it's actually an early sign of a toxic or abusive relationship.
  • Indy Ploy: Mentioned in the Raiders of the Lost Ark review, naturally.
  • Insane Equals Violent: Discussed in the The Invisible Man (2020) review, when Jonathan notes that Adrian is a classic case of The Sociopath and The Narcissist, but that people with those personality disorders are not inherently evil and he knows many people with one or both diagnoses that work hard on themselves and do a lot of good. What makes Adrian and people like him abusive monsters is that they refuse to change or consider anyone else and willfully indulge in the worst aspects of their disorders.
    • Jonathan makes the note in several Villain Therapy videos that mental illness or psychological issues do not inherently make a person bad or violent; rather, the point of the series to analyze real psychological conditions through the lens of how they manifest in a villainous character, and hypothesize on how that villain might have been helped and not become a villain in the first place. On the flip side, the "Psychology Of A Hero" videos exist to show that being a hero does not mean you have no mental health problems, perhaps even full-blown mental illnesses.
  • The Knights Who Say "Squee!": They really like Die Hard. And Oscar Isaac. And Alan Rickman.
    • Alan also really loves Emma Thompson, "who is my queen and can do no wrong."
  • Manly Tears:
    • Alan will often break down over emotional moments in the films they discuss.
      "Damn you, Pixar."
    • They both tear up a lot discussing Big Hero 6. As a bonus Alan explains how crying is done in animation and how the music is used to convey the protagonist's emotional state.
    • They note that Aragorn being able to openly grieve for Boromir is indicative of healthy masculinity.
  • Mental Health Recovery Arc: WandaVision for Wanda Maximoff.
  • "Not So Different" Remark: They comment on Belloq's use of the trope in Raiders of the Lost Arc as they review Indy's character journey, and opine that Belloq's statement that it wouldn't take much to turn Indy into Belloq is true, because in Temple of Doom, Indy basically was Belloq: only out for his own "fortune and glory" and to hell with everyone else.
  • One True Threesome: Invoked. It's suggested that writing a Twilight fanfic similar to 50 Shades of Grey with Jacob, Edward, and Bella all together could make them millions. They would, however, lose their souls.
    • "But millions." "But souls." "But millions." "But souls.".
  • Overly Narrow Superlative: Laughed about during their examination of the best and worst pairings in Christmas rom-coms. Jonathan observes that Happiest Season is "the best lesbian Christmas rom-com" he's ever seen, then admits that it's also the only one he's ever seen. "But I'm glad it exists."
  • Papa Wolf: Discussed in their A Quiet Place review, regarding Lee's Heroic Sacrifice to save his kids, since they're both fathers. Jonathan mentions that he's always questioned whether he'd have it in him to give his life for another person, but if it were his kids, he wouldn't even think about it. Alan agrees.
  • Pass the Popcorn:
    • They've always got popcorn. Jonathan's also joked about how early in couples therapy he does this while watching them fight, since you can figure out quite a lot about what's wrong with a relationship from it.
    • They do eat apple pie in the Captain America episode, since he's as American as apple pie.
    • And bagels on the Everything Everywhere All at Once episode.
    • Candied popcorn (especially Chicago Mix, which is cheddar-cheese-and-caramel popcorn together) is a bit of a Trademark Favorite Food for Alan. In fact, a candied popcorn company is a consistent sponsor.
  • The Power of Trust: Vulnerability in relationships is a running theme. Jonathan underlines, several times, that trust is earned, though.
  • Real Men Hate Affection: Thoroughly defied. Jonathan repeatedly points out how unhealthy a concept this is and praises male characters who avert it, as well as storylines where male characters start out believing it but ultimately learn better.
  • The Scapegoat: Analysed in the Bruno episode under the proper psychological term: the "identified patient".
  • Shipper on Deck: Whenever they're discussing a movie that shows a healthy romantic relationship, expect this.
  • Team Pet: Gandalf the White, Alan's large white dog, occasionally joins them in various videos.
  • Therapy Is for the Weak: Completely defied, given that one host is a licenced therapist and the other is fairly open about seeing a therapist. A common theme is that there's no shame in getting the help you need.
  • Troubled Abuser:
    • Discussed in The Invisible Man (2020), when they note that most abusers have a degree of humanity to them and are genuinely sorry when they hurt someone or make them leave, but if they keep getting forgiven or avoiding consequences they just fall back into the same abusive patterns. It's part of why victims keep going back to abusers and why they shouldn't come back, because the only way to help the person is to dissolve the relationship entirely and force the person to introspect and work on themselves.
    • Also discussed in Part 1 of their New Moon analysis with regards to Edward throwing Bella against a wall to "protect her" from Jasper. Jonathan notes that some abusers do feel bad when they injure their victims, but it doesn't excuse their actions.
  • Valentine's Day Episode: The analysis of Silver Linings Playbook.
  • Wacky Marriage Proposal: They discuss marriage proposals after seeing one in Eclipse that they deem subpar. Alan's was apparently this accidentally, as he got so caught up in a Twirl of Love that he missed the path and fell down a hill.
  • Why Would Anyone Take Him Back?: In-universe, if you can call it that; both are at a loss as to why Bella wants to be with Edward, Jonathan especially so.
    Edward: I'm designed to kill.
    Bella: I don't care.
    Jonathan: WHY?
  • You Are a Credit to Your Race: Discussed in their Zootopia video.

Jonathan: Until next time: Keep on writing, analyzing, and learning.
Alan: Keep troping! And...
Jonathan & Alan: Watch movies!

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