Near the beginning of It’s Kind of a Funny Story, Craig (Keir Gilchrist), our teenage protagonist who has grown disturbed by his own recurring thoughts of suicide, walks into a mental health clinic. “I want to kill myself,” he says to the person behind the counter. She hands him a clipboard and says “Fill this out.” more ›

Ten years after meeting on the set of a student film, the filmmaking duo Anna Bolden and Ryan Fleck is on a roll. Their first feature, 2006's justly acclaimed debut Half Nelson, received the recognition it was due when star Ryan Gosling was nominated for an Academy Award. 2008's Sugar earned more plaudits for its portrayal of a young Dominican's pitcher's journey through Minor League Baseball. The latest from the co-directing and co-writing couple is It's Kind of a Funny Story, a light-hearted adaptation of a comedic young adult memoir about a suicidal teenager who checks himself into a mental health clinic, starring Keir Gilchrest, Emma Roberts and Zach Galifianakis. We sat down to talk about Galifianakis, John Hughes, brain maps, Broken Social Scene and the how you make the anti-Cuckoo's Nest. more ›

All eyes are on Springfield as the General Assembly debates legislation affecting mental health funding in Chicago and Illinois. more ›

Have a safe and happy Memorial Day! more ›

Is lead that inexpensive? Some toy stores are being hurt by Mattel's massive toy recall, and others are actually watching business boom. Mayor Daley introduced a proposed ordinance Wednesday calling for increased parking rates at O'Hare International and Midway Airports that would generate about $24 million in additional revenue a year. (They're really working on cranking out the ordinances, hey?) Sounds like the plot of a creepy movie ...a convicted murderer whose sister-in-law helped... more ›

Dr. Dre once rapped about "drinkin', smokin', straight West Coastin'." These days, drinkin' and smokin' are more like mid-westin'. And Chicago in particular. Unless you are talking about smoking pot. We still don't do too much of that in the Windy City. A new survey found that more Chicagoans admit to binge drinking than in any other metropolitan city surveyed. A whopping 25.7 percent of people surveyed in Chicago admit to "drinking excessively" in the... more ›

Michael Bailey1, oh how we love you and your crazy sex studies. Bailey of Northwestern and Meredith Chivers of the Center for Addiction and Mental Health recently released a study finding that women get aroused by all sorts of nastiness: lesbian-on-lesbian action, Heath Ledger-on-Jack Gyllenhaal cowboy rompin', and even, yes, monkey-on-sweet-monkey action. Repeat: some women get aroused watching monkeys having sex. Michael Bailey is famous (and quite controversal) for hooking up arousal meters to his... more ›