‘Brain on Fire’: The movie leaving Netflix this week you need to watch
Whenever you blink too hard on Netflix, at least a handful of titles leave the platform, if not more. Although the streamer often compensates for its departure arc in more ways than one, viewers must always be on their toes, lest their favourites vanish into thin air. While you may call this the streaming paradox of digital life, time’s almost running out on a Netflix original film, Brain on Fire. And this probably will be your last reminder to tune in to the biographical drama.
Brain on Fire, Gerard Barrett’s 2016 film based on Susannah Cahalan’s memoir, Brain on Fire: My Month of Madness, is currently counting its days on Netflix. The film is scheduled to leave Netflix on June 22nd, allowing fans nearly a week to clear their calendars and get started with streaming. Historically speaking, Netflix originals have a separate fan base. But what will compel viewers more than the streaming pedigree is the fact that the film chronicles a true story.
Brain on Fire revolves around New York Post writer Cahalan, who succumbs to an unexplained condition, which, on further probe by several doctors, is revealed to be psychosis. Initially, she seemingly struggled with symptoms like cough and fatigue. However, she soon had a heightened startle response to loud noises, and she even heard things people didn’t say. But when she started experiencing seizures, Cahalan finally sought medical assistance.
Brain on Fire revolves around the false diagnoses, Cahalan’s struggle with a mysterious illness, and how she was about to be transferred to a psychiatric ward if not for Dr Souhel Najjar. Cahalan initially believed she was experiencing bipolar disorder, until a doctor informed her parents about the possibility of schizophrenia. However, when the Syrian-American neurologist took up her case, she was diagnosed with a rare condition, anti-NMDA receptor encephalitis. Najjar described the disease as “a brain on fire.”
Brain on Fire premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 14th, 2016. The film was later released on Netflix on June 22nd, 2018. Following Cahalan’s diagnosis by Dr Najjar, she underwent treatment and was able to go back to work seven months later. The movie is cathartic in the sense that Cahalan presents her first piece, and her boss suggests she document her experience in a book. She names that very book, Brain on Fire.
Brain on Fire is not exactly the DNA streamers stereotypically fall back on. But it highlights the non-illuminated corners of human experiences, helping navigate the path ahead for people who struggle similarly. According to the film’s closing text, Cahalan was reportedly the 217th person diagnosed with anti-NMDA receptor encephalitis. Thanks to her memoir and the Netflix film, many people have been rightly diagnosed and treated since.
Brain on Fire is not even a streaming retreat in ways that you would expect. But it assists and educates while urging people to keep an open mind. It enhances human comprehension and enables understanding, stressing how timely intervention in medical cases like Cahalan’s can break or make a person. So, if you want a piece of reality to take over your streaming run, do so with the biographical film, before it leaves Netflix on June 22nd.