Movies mirror society. They cover almost every subject that we feel, observe, or live in our day-to-day life, and narcissism is no exception. Look for movies about narcissists, and you will find a long list of movies with either their antagonist, protagonist, or any other character with this trait.
If you want to watch a movie highlighting this disorder, here is a list of movies about narcissists.
What are movies about narcissists?
In this article, we have enlisted 18 movies that interpret different aspects of narcissism and many other mental health issues.
Some are horror, some thriller, and some romantic comedies, each demonstrating their take on narcissistic personality disorder.
An Insight Into Narcissistic Abuse
Before we discuss movies about narcissistic abuse, we must understand what narcissistic abuse is. What qualities make a person a narcissist? Let’s find out.
If we have to define a typical narcissistic behavior in one word, it would be “self-centeredness”. Narcissists often harbor a sharp streak of egocentricity, a superiority complex, and ruthlessness.
People with narcissistic personality disorder can be physically, verbally, or passively aggressive and refuse to change their behavior. They are also highly sensitive and retaliate fiercely to meaningless comments.
Narcissistic abuse can be very damaging in the long term. It can hamper emotional well-being.
List of Movies about Narcissistic Abuse
Choose your pick to watch next if you want to understand narcissistic traits in-depth :
Gone Girl
Released In – 2014
Based on the novel of the same name written by Gillian Flynn, Gone Girl is a psychological thriller. The protagonist, Amy Dunne, presents a classic example of narcissism. Her personality traits resonate with narcissist personality disorder, psychopathy, and sociopathy.
Amy Dunne vanishes on the day of her 5th wedding anniversary. Later, it surfaces that she faked her death, and Nick, her husband falls into the light of suspicion.
The movie tells how narcissists can manipulate anyone to fulfill their ulterior motives.
Gaslight
Released In – 1944
It is only recently that the term gaslighting became popular among people. But, Patrick Hamilton understood this disorder in 1938 and wrote a play named Gas Light. In 1944, it was adopted in a movie.
Belonging to the mystery romance genre, it follows the life of Paula, who was sent to Italy after her aunt died in their London Home. Paula returns home with her husband, only to find some strange occurring in their home, for instance, strange noises from the attic, missing pictures, gaslights dimming on their own, and more.
While trying to make sense of all these strange happenings, Paula suffers from her husband’s hostile behavior, who tries to manipulate her for his own benefit.
Gaslighting is when a person manipulates another to the extent that the victim starts questioning their sanity.
The Dictator
Released In – 2012
The Dictator might have sent you on a laughing riot, but it also throws light on narcissistic abuse.
This modern satire traces the life of a dictator, Gen. Aladeen (played by Sacha Baron Cohen), who heads to New York to talk to the UN about his country’s nuclear weapon program. The Dictator does not want democracy to ever come to his country.
The depiction of narcissistic behavior in the movie is hilarious but also thought-provoking. It is indeed one of the best movies about narcissistic abuse.
The Devil Wears Prada
Released In – 2006
Of course, we love Miranda Priestly, but we can never deny the fact that she is one hell of a narcissist. She is self-absorbed, demanding, and lacks empathy. An editor-in-chief of a high-end magazine, she makes the lives of her assistants a living hell.
The movie is a light comedy-drama that excavates the behavior of an overt narcissistic boss. The comedic elements and dialogues are excellent.
American Psycho
Released In – 2000
One of the finest Christian Bale movies, American Psycho, is a violent crime drama that unearths the disturbing traits of narcissistic and sociopathic behavior. The movie is about an investment banker who is a narcissistic serial killer.
A strong storyline, topped with a hard-hitting performance by Christian Bale, makes this movie a must-watch.
Black Swan
Released In – 2010
Black Swan is a 2010 American psychological horror that touches many important subjects like anxiety disorder, substance abuse, obsessive-compulsive disorder, eating disorder, and narcissism.
Nina Sayers, a young ballerina trying to cope with the competitive pressure and bag the starring role in Swan Lake, deals with psychological illness.
The blame for the illness can be put on her narcissistic mother, who always tries to manage every aspect of her life and infringe on her personal space.
Erica, Nina’s mother, failed to have a successful career as a ballerina. She tries to live her dreams through her daughter but also resents her for the success she could not achieve.
The strong storyline, backed by power-packed performances, makes Black Swan one of the best movies on covert narcissists.
August: Osage County
Released In – 2013
Meryl Streep, again in her full glory, delivers a strong performance in August: Osage County. She plays a typical narcissistic mother, Violet Weston, who has been diagnosed with cancer and is reuniting with her daughters.
Violet has many narcissistic traits. She is manipulative, makes her daughters feel guilty, gaslights them, and cloaks her behavior with her anecdotes about childhood abuse.
This movie is a strong depiction of narcissistic abuse.
Rachel Getting Married
Released In – 2008
This movie is an emotional take on how traumas shape families and how people slip into the shell of narcissism to deal with the effects.
The story is about Kym, who has been an alcoholic and drug addict once, but now lives in rehab. She returns home after years to attend her sister’s wedding. Having spent years in rehab, Kym now faces the challenge to gel in with her family.
Although she is trying to suppress her narcissistic streaks, chaos ensues. This movie is one of the most emotional and thought-provoking movies about narcissists.
Hush
Released In – 1998
Hush is a thriller movie that explains narcissism in the best possible way. It depicts the story of a couple, Jackson (Johnathon Schaech) and Helen (Gwyneth Paltrow), who moved in with Jackson’s mother just before welcoming their first child. But, things did not go as planned.
Martha (Jessica Lange), Jackson’s mother, is a narcissistic mother, jealous of her daughter-in-law for getting all the love and attention from her son. Her self-absorbed and selfish behavior moved to an extent where she even plans to kill her son’s wife so that she could have her son and grandson to herself.
Arthur
Released In – 1981
Arthur is another movie about narcissist that perfectly demonstrate the toxic characteristics of a person with narcissistic personality disorder.
The rom-com revolves around the life of Arthur, a narcissist torn between marrying someone he doesn’t love and a waitress he loves to the core.
Although the movie is a light watch with excellent comic timing, it puts narcissism to your full view.
Joker
Released In – 2019
Joker is an intense take on serious mental disorders, including narcissistic personality disorder. Starring Joaquin Phoenix, this critically-acclaimed movie depicts the story of Arthur, who meets the DSM-5 criteria for NPD.
Arthur Fleck lives in early-1980s Gotham City. A failed stand-up comedian and a clown-for-hire for a company, Arthur’s failure, topped by bullying and mocking, throws him into the deep gorges of mental illness. He developed a complex personality wearing a villainous cloak.
Later, on being invited to a TV show he has always imagined himself appearing in, his fragile self-esteem shatters when no one laughs at his joke.
Joker is a dark and complex story of a damaged and disturbed personality whose personality disorders take him into a descent to the point where violence and chaos become his solace.
Fatal Attraction
Released In – 1987
This movie demonstrates a set of destructive personality traits. It is counted among the best movies about narcissists.
Dan Gallagher is a lawyer doing great on the professional and personal front until a casual fling takes a toll on his personal life.
He gets involved in an extramarital affair with Alex, a book editor. Things become even messier when an obsessed Alex tries to destroy his marriage.
Alex is portrayed as a narcissistic woman whose behavior spirals down to the point of instability. She becomes an obsessive stalker and a threat to Dan’s family.
Matilda
Released In – 1996
Matilda is a classic based on Roald Dahl’s book of the same name.
Matilda Wormwood is a brilliant girl with telekinetic powers. However, her family does not appreciate her. They do not take her to school and brush off her achievements as meaningless. Dealing with her narcissistic family and abusive school principal becomes easy for her with her superpowers.
This fantasy fiction not only depicts narcissism but also has many lessons for children. It teaches that being odd is absolutely normal.
Mean Girls
Released In – 2004
The name says it all. Mean Girls is a movie about mean girls who are mean to anyone and everyone.
Regina George is the epitome of narcissism. She is self-centered, vicious, manipulative, arrogant, and everything that a narcissist could be. She lives with an overly dangerous sense of self-entitlement and self-importance.
Furthermore, the movie also talks about other modern-day issues like intrapersonal conflict. Cady, a home-schooled teen, finds herself in a mess while trying to become popular in her new high school and sticking to her true self.
The Invisible Man
Released In – 2020
The Invisible Man is based on an 1897 novel written by H.G. Wells. The science fiction horror revolves around the life of Cecilia, whose abusive ex fakes his death and becomes invisible to torture her.
The movie elucidates the perils of narcissistic personality disorder. The idea of a vengeful, jealous, and obsessive lover becoming invisible to the world only to torment his ex is bone-chilling.
The director of the movie, Leigh Whannell, conducted many interviews with experts and many women. He talked about domestic violence and learned that this is a part of the strategies many abusers use to torment their victims.
The Invisible Man is an example of narcissistic abuse.
There Will Be Blood
Released In – 2007
The period drama follows the life of Daniel Plainview (played by Daniel Day-Lewis), a narcissistic oil prospector, once a silver miner, aspiring to become an oil tycoon.
Daniel is arrogant, brutal, greedy, and self-centered. He manipulates his adopted son to meet his vicious purposes. He paints a family-man image and hoaxes landowners to buy their properties for very little.
While Daniel Plainview is a paradigm of greed and egotism, Eli Sunday, a Christian preacher, is an embodiment of conceit.
The movie tells of a brawl between Plainview and Eli Sunday, between two kinds of evil.
Sleeping With The Enemy
Released In – 1991
Sleeping with the Enemy is one of the creepiest movies about narcissist abuse. This psychological thriller revolves around a couple, Sara (Julia Roberts) and Martin (Patrick Bergin). Sara is a housewife, and Martin is an investment counselor.
Martin is an impostor who flaunts a pleasant personality outside but is abusive behind closed doors. He is a narcissist and constantly belittles Sara. Later, he showers Sara with all his love and attention, a classic narcissist trait.
Sara fakes her death to get rid of Martin, and Martin leaves no stone unturned in tracking her down.
The Shining
Released In – 1980
The Shining is one of the most recognized horror, written by Stephen King and later adapted into a movie by Stanley Kubrick.
Jack Torrance (Jack Nicholson), dealing with a block in his writing career, takes up the job of a winter caretaker at Overlook Hotel in Colorado and settles there with his wife, Wendy (Shelley Duvall), and son, Danny (Danny Lloyd).
Jack’s sanity takes backstage when monotony and isolation hit. His narcissistic personality surfaces as his creative block refuses to go away. All this is topped by psychic visions of his son, Danny.
Final thoughts
These movies about narcissists beautifully showcase how narcissism affects not only the narcissist but also the people around them. It is not only the narcissist that deals with problems, but everyone related to them has to endure a struggle.
We hope you enjoyed browsing through our list of best movies about narcissists. If you want to watch them, you can find these movies about narcissists on Netflix, Amazon Prime, or any other streaming platform.
