Stephanie Lee Jackson
Ladies, I'm going to give you a couple of scenarios, and you tell me if they sound realistic.Say you're in your late teens, early twenties. You're at your boyfriend's house, making out on the couch. His autistic cousin walks in on you. Boyfriend leaves the room. What do you do?You invite the autistic dude to sit down, move inappropriately close to him, and proceed to confuse and confound him with your teasingly seductive remarks, am I right?Or how about this. You're the stay-at-home mother of two young adults, with nothing better to do all day than get manicures and ruin dinner. Your neglectful husband adopts his autistic nephew and senile parent, expecting you to provide round-the-clock care and supervision for both of them. You quite unjustifiably behave like a raging bitch, dumping senile grandpa in a home, and emotionally abusing the nephew. But then you find that autistic nephew can cook! So you admit you are a raging bitch, he teaches you to cook, your husband pays attention to you again, and you all live happily ever after.Note to all ambitious writer/directors: if you are incapable of imagining a female character with a personality, nuanced motivation, complex emotions or an inner life, what in the world makes you think you can depict the experience of a non-neuro-typical person with anything approaching verisimilitude? What makes you think you have the right to try?
TxMike
This is a real gem of a movie, very funny but also very real. We found it on Netflix streaming movies.Lou Taylor Pucci is 25-yr-old Luke who has one of the forms of autism. He is very bright but also very socially awkward, partly because his grandmother took him out of special school to home school him, and wanted him to take his time, getting a high school diploma in his 20s.His mother had abandoned him to her parents, his grandparents, when he was a young boy. But now, with grandma deceased and grandpa exhibiting signs of early dementia, Luke is forced to go with his Uncle Paul's family.Cary Elwes is very appropriate as Uncle Paul, married to Kristin Bauer van Straten as Aunt Cindy. They have two teenagers, Cousin Brad and Cousin Megan. But aunt and uncle aren't getting along too well, partly because she is such a beotch, and Luke overhears them fussing about him having to live there. So Luke decides he will just have to get a job so that he can be self-sufficient.All this creates many interesting situations and Luke proves that he is very adaptable. He takes the advice seriously, a man doesn't whine he figures out what needs to be done and he does it. He learns the fine art of saying things that will make other people more receptive, and after some trial period lands a job.I can't say enough about how well Pucci creates the character of Luke, always playing him just right, not for sympathy but in recognition of his unique talents and perspectives. A fine entertaining movie.Filmed in Sault St Marie Michigan and Canada.
alicecbr
I am awash in a family of people with ADD and ADHD, as the Seth Green character was. Autistic people intrigue me, because we are supposedly somewhere on that spectrum. I was a gifted child and software engineer for 35 years, and still have no filter. So this movie taught me a little about 'being normal', something I've always wondered about. I needed Seth Green to explain to me how to be or ape being neurologically normal: to pretend interest when you aren't, to look into someone's eyes but not too long so as not to appear weird, to use stupid" small talk to buffer the conversation, etc, etc. I never knew any of this stuff. Had I learned to be tactful, to couch my true feelings in the little white lies of which society is made, then maybe I wouldn't have had 3 husbands and 3 divorces. This movie is essential watching for people like me, male or female. Your heart bleeds, as you realize 'normalcy' with its hypocrisies and cruelties will never be his. His pitiful rotten mom will perhaps never be able to be anywhere near his mother . But his aunt sure turned herself around and I really loved that part. So much of what is insightful about this movies revolves around Luke's blatant honesty, his utter guilelessness. I think so much of this screenplay must have been written by someone who knew intimately an autistic person. Will my grandson ever be able to stay married, have a 'normal' adulthood, whatever that is? Will Adderall/methyl phenydrate and these other horrid drugs be what his life will comprise? God, I hope not, but movies like this kinda help us learn to ape whatever it is we need to get along in the workaday world. Wanna make a lot of money? Become a socialization coach for people like Luke and myself. Daddy took Dale Carnegies courses to help him; autistic folks should be able to have similar training. The support he got from this great, non perfect family of his thrilled me What a movie!!!! And who the Hell wants to be normal, anyhow?
meckl
I was lucky enough to see this film at the Maryland International Film Festival in Hagerstown MD. I am not sure how it qualified as international - maybe because it was filmed in Canada?? In any case this is a sweet story of a man who is trying to find his way in the world. He doesn't fit in because of his autism and being sheltered by his grandparents. Watching him progress through the movie was inspiring. I laughed quite a bit and even shed a tear near the end. I am not familiar with the actor who plays Luke but he did an incredible job. I wasn't expecting to see Seth Green and Cary Elwes in an independent movie at an international film fest but they both did a great job. Seth Greens character is a little hard to take at first because he is unkind to the lead. The movie has a great story that makes you feel better after you see. I recommend seeing it if you have the chance. It was mentioned at the festival that the film may get picked up for distribution which would be great. Very deserving.
AD
