Alumni, Arches

Joshua Jones ’98 and Jeffrey Jones ’02

When brothers Joshua ’98 and Jeffrey Jones ’02 watch a movie or a TV show, they pay attention to wildly different things. The Jones brothers host Cinemental, a podcast that mixes humor and personal experience to analyze the way mental health is portrayed in film and television.

Josh, a psychiatrist in Port Angeles, Wash., who studied biology at Puget Sound, watches how characters with mental health conditions manifest their symptoms on screen. Jeff, a filmmaker and screenwriting professor in Los Angeles who earned a degree in philosophy, looks at how the screenwriting and editing approach mental health.

Over the 12 podcast episodes so far, the brothers have bridged the worlds of medicine and filmmaking to deconstruct depictions of depression and suicide in The Iron Claw, panic attacks and therapy in The Sopranos, and, most recently, substance abuse and family conflict in The Bear, among other releases.

Joshua Jones ’98 and Jeffrey Jones ’02

Brothers Jeff ’02 (left) and Josh Jones ’98 combine their academic backgrounds in order to examine mental health in movies and TV.

When the brothers saw Rain Man, the 1988 Academy Award-winning movie starring Dustin Hoffman and Tom Cruise, Josh Jones was impressed with the accuracy of Hoffman’s portrayal.

“The repetitive stereotyped vocalizations, repetitive stereotyped movements—those are things that are characteristic of some, but not all, folks with autism spectrum disorder,” he says.

He hopes listeners of the podcast don’t feel stigmatized “because they might have some symptoms and might identify with the person on the screen.”

In Rain Man, Jeff Jones noted where Hoffman’s portrayal of autism spectrum disorder features in the script (spoiler alert: right before the downfall of Tom Cruise’s character) and considers the importance of accurately depicting the disorder.

“I don’t think Hollywood has a responsibility to necessarily get these things right,” Jeff Jones says. “It’s then our job to talk about these things and guide people in the right direction.”

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