Group: The Schopenhauer Effect (2025)

Interesting facts

The Schopenhauer Effect is a 2025 American drama film written and directed by Alexis Lloyd. The film follows a therapy group which is disrupted by the arrival of a new member, played by Thomas Sadoski. The film premiered at the Naples International Film Festival in October 2025, where it won the Programmer's Choice Award. It was theatrically released in the United States on March 13, 2026, by Abramorama.

Production

Director Alexis Lloyd optioned Irvin D. Yalom’s 2005 novel The Schopenhauer Cure, with the aim of adapting it into a television series. Doing research, he attended a conference of the American Group Psychotherapy Association, where he met longtime group therapist Dr. Elliot Zeisel. Zeisel suggested that Lloyd join one of his groups. As Amanda Hess wrote in The New York Times, "When Mr.

The first iteration of what became known as Group premiered as a web series on YouTube in May 2020. In The Atlantic, journalist Amy Wallace wrote that "the group's mutual pursuit of understanding and empathy felt refreshing, even potent. Maybe if Group's participants could raise one another up, the rest of us could, too." A second season, shot on Zoom at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, premiered on YouTube on December 22, 2020.

The feature film The Schopenhauer Effect is a meta take on the birth of the web series, with actor Thomas Sadoski playing a character based on Lloyd, who joins the group in order to do research for a television series.

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