Prozac Nation (film)
Encyclopedia
Prozac Nation is a 2001 American drama film directed by Erik Skjoldbjærg
, starring Christina Ricci
, Jason Biggs
and Anne Heche
. . It is based on an autobiography of the same name
by Elizabeth Wurtzel
, which describes Wurtzel's experiences with major depression. The title is a reference to Prozac, the name of an Eli Lilly and Company
-manufactured antidepressant
she was prescribed.
is awarded by Rolling Stone
.
Lizzie becomes abusive in sex and abuses drugs
as her depression worsens; in her anger and misery, she lashes out at those who love her most, ultimately making her problems worse. Her mother sends her to an expensive psychiatric treatment with Dr. Sterling, in spite of having difficulties paying for her medical bills and therapy sessions. After a long period of treatment under medication, and a suicide
attempt, Lizzie stabilizes and adjusts to the real world.
on September 8, 2001; distribution rights were acquired by Miramax Films
with the intent of giving the film a wider theatrical release. Months of subsequent test screenings and re-edits of the film never led to a broad commercial release. The film was released in Norway
, Skjoldbjærg's native country, in August 2003, but it never had a national release in the U.S. market. It premiered on the Starz!
channel in March 2005, and was released on DVD
that following summer.
Frank Deasy, who co-wrote the screenplay
, offered his opinion to The Guardian
on Miramax's failure to release the film:
Erik Skjoldbjærg
Erik Skjoldbjærg is a Norwegian director and writer best known for co-writing and directing the film Insomnia and directing Prozac Nation-External links:...
, starring Christina Ricci
Christina Ricci
Christina Ricci is an American actress. Ricci received initial recognition and praise as a child star for her performance as Wednesday Addams in The Addams Family and Addams Family Values , and her role as Kat Harvey in Casper...
, Jason Biggs
Jason Biggs
Jason Matthew Biggs is an American actor who is best known for his role as Jim Levenstein in the American Pie series of teen comedy films.-Personal life:...
and Anne Heche
Anne Heche
Anne Celeste Heche is an American actress, director, and screenwriter. She started her career on the daytime soap opera Another World, for which she won a Daytime Emmy Award in 1991. Heche gradually landed supporting roles in feature films, and in 1997 appeared in I Know What You Did Last Summer,...
. . It is based on an autobiography of the same name
Prozac Nation (book)
Prozac Nation , an autobiography published in 1994 and written by Elizabeth Wurtzel, describes the author's experiences with major depression, her own character failings and how she managed to live through particularly difficult periods while completing college and working as a writer...
by Elizabeth Wurtzel
Elizabeth Wurtzel
Elizabeth Lee Wurtzel is an American corporate attorney, writer and journalist, known for her work in the confessional memoir genre. She is a graduate of Harvard College and Yale Law School.-Early life:...
, which describes Wurtzel's experiences with major depression. The title is a reference to Prozac, the name of an Eli Lilly and Company
Eli Lilly and Company
Eli Lilly and Company is a global pharmaceutical company. Eli Lilly's global headquarters is located in Indianapolis, Indiana, in the United States...
-manufactured antidepressant
Antidepressant
An antidepressant is a psychiatric medication used to alleviate mood disorders, such as major depression and dysthymia and anxiety disorders such as social anxiety disorder. According to Gelder, Mayou &*Geddes people with a depressive illness will experience a therapeutic effect to their mood;...
she was prescribed.
Plot
Elizabeth "Lizzie" Wurtzel is a teenager accepted into Harvard with a scholarship in journalism. She has been raised by her divorced mother since she was two years old, but she misses her father and feels needy and depressed. When she joins the university, she lives with a roommate Ruby and loses her virginity with a man called Noah. Her article for the local column in The Harvard CrimsonThe Harvard Crimson
The Harvard Crimson, the daily student newspaper of Harvard University, was founded in 1873. It is the only daily newspaper in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and is run entirely by Harvard College undergraduates...
is awarded by Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...
.
Lizzie becomes abusive in sex and abuses drugs
Drug abuse
Substance abuse, also known as drug abuse, refers to a maladaptive pattern of use of a substance that is not considered dependent. The term "drug abuse" does not exclude dependency, but is otherwise used in a similar manner in nonmedical contexts...
as her depression worsens; in her anger and misery, she lashes out at those who love her most, ultimately making her problems worse. Her mother sends her to an expensive psychiatric treatment with Dr. Sterling, in spite of having difficulties paying for her medical bills and therapy sessions. After a long period of treatment under medication, and a suicide
Suicide
Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Suicide is often committed out of despair or attributed to some underlying mental disorder, such as depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, alcoholism, or drug abuse...
attempt, Lizzie stabilizes and adjusts to the real world.
Cast
- Christina RicciChristina RicciChristina Ricci is an American actress. Ricci received initial recognition and praise as a child star for her performance as Wednesday Addams in The Addams Family and Addams Family Values , and her role as Kat Harvey in Casper...
as Elizabeth WurtzelElizabeth WurtzelElizabeth Lee Wurtzel is an American corporate attorney, writer and journalist, known for her work in the confessional memoir genre. She is a graduate of Harvard College and Yale Law School.-Early life:... - Jason BiggsJason BiggsJason Matthew Biggs is an American actor who is best known for his role as Jim Levenstein in the American Pie series of teen comedy films.-Personal life:...
as Rafe - Anne HecheAnne HecheAnne Celeste Heche is an American actress, director, and screenwriter. She started her career on the daytime soap opera Another World, for which she won a Daytime Emmy Award in 1991. Heche gradually landed supporting roles in feature films, and in 1997 appeared in I Know What You Did Last Summer,...
as Dr. Sterling - Michelle WilliamsMichelle Williams (actress)Michelle Ingrid Williams is an American actress. After starting her career with television guest appearances in the early 1990s, Williams achieved recognition for her role as Jen Lindley on the WB television teen drama Dawson's Creek, which she played from 1998 to 2003...
as Ruby - Jonathan Rhys Meyers as Noah
- Jessica LangeJessica LangeJessica Phyllis Lange is an American actress who has worked in film, theatre and television. The recipient of several awards, including two Academy Awards, four Golden Globes and one Emmy, Lange is regarded as one of the première female actors of her generation.Lange was discovered by producer...
as Mrs. Wurtzel - Jesse MossJesse Moss-Life and career:Moss was born in Vancouver, British Columbia. He is best known for his roles of Jason Wise in Final Destination 3 and Quinn McKaye on Whistler, for which Moss won a Leo Award for Best Lead Performance by a Male in a Dramatic Series in 2007. Moss starred in the Dear Mr...
as Sam - Nicholas CampbellNicholas CampbellNicholas Campbell , sometimes credited as Nick Campbell, is a Canadian actor and filmmaker, who has won three Gemini Awards for acting. The movies Naked Lunch, Prozac Nation and the TV series Da Vinci's Inquest are some examples of his acting work.-Early life:Campbell was born in Toronto, Ontario,...
as Donald - Lou ReedLou ReedLewis Allan "Lou" Reed is an American rock musician, songwriter, and photographer. He is best known as guitarist, vocalist, and principal songwriter of The Velvet Underground, and for his successful solo career, which has spanned several decades...
as Lou Reed
Release
The film had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film FestivalToronto International Film Festival
The Toronto International Film Festival is a publicly-attended film festival held each September in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. In 2010, 339 films from 59 countries were screened at 32 screens in downtown Toronto venues...
on September 8, 2001; distribution rights were acquired by Miramax Films
Miramax Films
Miramax Films is an American entertainment company known for distributing independent and foreign films. For its first 14 years the company was privately owned by its founders, Bob and Harvey Weinstein...
with the intent of giving the film a wider theatrical release. Months of subsequent test screenings and re-edits of the film never led to a broad commercial release. The film was released in Norway
Norway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
, Skjoldbjærg's native country, in August 2003, but it never had a national release in the U.S. market. It premiered on the Starz!
Starz!
Starz is an American premium subscription channel that features mainly first-run motion pictures, along with some original programming...
channel in March 2005, and was released on DVD
DVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
that following summer.
Frank Deasy, who co-wrote the screenplay
Screenplay
A screenplay or script is a written work that is made especially for a film or television program. Screenplays can be original works or adaptations from existing pieces of writing. In them, the movement, actions, expression, and dialogues of the characters are also narrated...
, offered his opinion to The Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
on Miramax's failure to release the film:
Soundtrack
What follows is a list of the songs that were played according to the end credits.- "The Promise" — Bruce SpringsteenBruce SpringsteenBruce Frederick Joseph Springsteen , nicknamed "The Boss," is an American singer-songwriter who records and tours with the E Street Band...
- "Mystery Achievement" — The PretendersThe PretendersThe Pretenders are an English rock band formed in Hereford, England in March 1978. The original band consisted of initiator and main songwriter Chrissie Hynde , James Honeyman-Scott , Pete Farndon , and Martin Chambers...
- "I Will Dare" — The ReplacementsThe ReplacementsThe Replacements were an American punk rock band formed in Minneapolis, Minnesota in 1979, and are considered pioneers of alternative rock. The band was composed of guitarist and vocalist Paul Westerberg, guitarist Bob Stinson, bassist Tommy Stinson, and drummer Chris Mars for most of their career...
- "Perfect Day" — Lou ReedLou ReedLewis Allan "Lou" Reed is an American rock musician, songwriter, and photographer. He is best known as guitarist, vocalist, and principal songwriter of The Velvet Underground, and for his successful solo career, which has spanned several decades...
- "Sweet JaneSweet Jane"Sweet Jane" is a song by The Velvet Underground, originally appearing on their 1970 album Loaded. The song was written by band's leader Lou Reed, who continued to incorporate the piece into live performances years later as a solo artist....
" — Lou ReedLou ReedLewis Allan "Lou" Reed is an American rock musician, songwriter, and photographer. He is best known as guitarist, vocalist, and principal songwriter of The Velvet Underground, and for his successful solo career, which has spanned several decades... - "Keep the Promise" — The Pontiac BrothersThe Pontiac BrothersThe Pontiac Brothers were an American hard rock band formed in 1983.Ward Dotson founded the Pontiac Brothers after splitting with The Gun Club in 1983. Their debut, Big Black River, was issued in France in 1985, which eventually landed them a Stateside deal with Frontier Records...
- "Ivory Tower" — The Long RydersThe Long RydersThe Long Ryders are an American alternative country and Paisley Underground band, principally active between 1983 and 1987, and which reformed in 2004 to do a reunion tour...
- "Who is Who" — The AdolescentsThe AdolescentsThe Adolescents are an American punk band formed in 1980 in Fullerton, California. It is a punk supergroup, made up of early members of Agent Orange and Social Distortion. They are often credited as one of the leading bands of the 1980s hardcore punk scene....
- "The Real West" — Thin White RopeThin White RopeThin White Rope was an American rock band fronted by Guy Kyser and related to the desert rock and paisley underground sub-genres. It was formed in Davis, California in 1984, and released five albums to critical acclaim....
- "Das Testament des Dr. Mabuse" — PropagandaPropaganda (band)Propaganda is a German synthpop group, formed in 1982. They were one of the initial roster of acts signed to Trevor Horn's ZTT label, between 1984 and 1986, during which they released the critically acclaimed album A Secret Wish....