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Anna Schafer stars in Elizabeth Blue, a film from Vincent Sabella that follows the title character after she is released from a mental institution. Sabella’s script is based on...

With his feature directorial debut Elizabeth Blue, writer/director Vincent Sabella tackles mental illness — specifically schizophrenia, obsessive compulsive disorder, depression and anxiety — all of which Sabella grapples with personally.

The film tells the story of Elizabeth (played by Anna Schafer), who recently got released from a mental institution and is now planning her wedding. With the love and support of her fiance, Grant (Ryan Vincent), and the help of her new and determined psychiatrist (Suicide Squad's Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje), Elizabeth is doing her best to maintain a normal life.

In addition to his own experience with mental illness, Sabella enlisted the...

It’s highly disconcerting yet unsurprising that many Baby Boomers now in their sixties and seventies still see mental illness as a weakness. Talk about the scenarios that young people of today face and they dismiss them as a generational thing, a liberalization of society wherein strength and stoicism have been replaced by laziness and excuses. Try and tell them that very viewpoint is what stigmatized psychological ailments for so long and they scoff. It’s easier for them to believe nothing was wrong in their day than to admit the silence was a product of cultural oppression. The former hails them as tough Americans who never lost themselves. The latter colors them as unwitting villains bullying those in need, a label their systemic disregard for complex truths deems slander.

This is a template used for many social issues (see racism, sexism, homophobia, et al). The disconnect bred in these...

A palpable authenticity permeates Vincent Sabella’s debut feature about a young woman suffering from schizophrenia. The director/co-screenwriter, who suffers from the condition himself, based the film on his own experiences when his medications failed to work. His portrait of the title character of Elizabeth Blue thus feels all too real in terms of depicting her suffering and confusion.

Unfortunately, that in itself doesn’t make it a fully successful film. Despite Anna Schafer’s gripping performance in the lead role, this deeply personal effort is too narratively sluggish to sustain attention.

At the story’s beginning, Elizabeth is released from a mental...

Vincent Sabella's drama Elizabeth Blue will open in select U.S. cinemas on September 22nd. Screen Anarchy has been given an exclusive clip to share with you today. You will find it and a the trailer below.    Recently released from a psychiatric hospital, Elizabeth (Anna Schafer) returns to her Los Angeles apartment where she lives with her fiancé, Grant (Ryan Vincent).   With the guidance of her new psychiatrist, Dr. Bowman (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje), and the unfaltering support of Grant, Elizabeth works at regaining control of her mental stability and her life as she begins to plan their wedding.   Struggling to navigate daily voices, hallucinations, anxiety, failing medications and her judgmental, unsupportive mother, Carol (Kathleen Quinlan), Elizabeth fears that Grant will leave her as she...

[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...

Keep up with the always-hopping film festival world with our weekly Film Festival Roundup column. Check out last week’s Roundup right here.

Lineup Announcements

– Exclusive: The 12th Annual Sunscreen Film Festival announced its official selections for the 2017 event featuring films with Alec Baldwin, Dylan McDermott, John Cleese, Daphne Zuniga and more. Opening night will feature Michael Mailer’s newest film, “Blind,” a romantic-drama, starring Alec Baldwin, Demi Moore and Dylan McDermott. Closing night will wrap up the festival with “Albion: The Enchanted Stallion,” a family fantasy adventure, starring John Cleese, Debra Messing, Jennifer Morrison and Stephen Dorff.

Retrospective Screenings will include Daphne Zuniga appearance at the festival honoring the 30th anniversary of “Spaceballs.” Also in this category will be “The Greatest Show on Earth,” from 1952 directed by Cecile B. DeMille, which won the Oscar for Best Pictures and Best Writing in 1953. The screening will honor the closing of the Ringling Bros.

Vincent Sabella's dramatic feature film debut Elizabeth Blue will be having its World Premiere at the Hollywood Reel Indepedant Film Festival on the 16th of this month. It already has a leg up as it has already been selected as the Best Dramatic Feature for that festival. They work fast.    ScreenAnarchy is pleased to debut to you the trailer and poster for the film. Be sure to also read through all of the release information about Elizabeth Blue below as there is a very interesting back story to Sabella's film. Very interesting and very personal.    Elizabeth Blue, which stars Anna Schafer, Ryan Vincent, Christopher Ashman, Nicola Lambo, Inger Tudor, Kathleen Quinlan and Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje centers on Elizabeth (Schafer) a young woman recently released from a mental hospital...

[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...

Vincent Sabella's dramatic feature film debut Elizabeth Blue will be having its World Premiere at the Hollywood Reel Indepedant Film Festival on the 16th of this month. It already has a leg up as it has already been selected as the Best Dramatic Feature for that festival. They work fast.    ScreenAnarchy is pleased to debut to you the trailer and poster for the film. Be sure to also read through all of the release information about Elizabeth Blue below as there is a very interesting back story to Sabella's film. Very interesting and very personal.    Elizabeth Blue, which stars Anna Schafer, Ryan Vincent, Christopher Ashman, Nicola Lambo, Inger Tudor, Kathleen Quinlan and Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje centers on Elizabeth (Schafer) a young woman recently released...

[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...