The film makes good use of the medium to show some of the symptoms of schizophrenia, specifically visual and auditory hallucinations - a deep and threatening voice tells Adam that everything he fears about himself is true, and a black fog swarms around and clogs his vision in times of extreme anxiety. Perhaps the bar is low, but this film surpasses it nonetheless. Even if the portrayal isn’t perfect, it is refreshing to see a story of mental illness told in a caring way. He has goals, and we follow him as he learns how to live with his disorder in order to achieve them. He has a very distinctive personality, which includes a strong passion for cooking and ambitions to become a chef. In Words on Bathroom Walls,” Adam is not defined by his diagnosis, although it obviously causes a lot of changes in his life. Part of the goal in “Words on Bathroom Walls,” though, is to show schizophrenia (and mental illness in general) as something that real people are constantly living with and battling.

This is not a singular example - mental illnesses are often vilified and used as plot devices in horror films. Night Shyamalan’s “Split,” for example, was heavily criticized for its portrayal of dissociative identity disorder. Neither Adam nor schizophrenia is ever demonized, a rare find in the film industry.

But director Thor Freudenthal (“Diary of a Wimpy Kid”) taps into something meaningful.

If not for its compassionate portrayal of Adam, a romantic coming-of-age film centered around schizophrenia might not have worked. He tries to maintain a happy and carefree exterior as he becomes closer to Maya, but this effort gets increasingly difficult as his mental health grows worse and worse. There, he meets Maya (Taylor Russell, “Waves”), the high-achieving soon-to-be valedictorian who agrees to tutor Adam as he struggles to keep his grades up. After being expelled due to a psychotic break, Adam undergoes a medical trial to treat his illness and transfers to a new private high school. Based on Julia Walton’s novel of the same name, “Words on Bathroom Walls” is a coming-of-age film about a high school senior named Adam (Charlie Plummer, “Looking for Alaska”) who is diagnosed with schizophrenia.

Words on the bathroom walls book