As an independent study at Keene State College, I am making a documentary on how Autism is represented in film. I am really excited about this project so I thought I would share my progress.
First I had to find films with characters with Autism to watch. I decided to limit films to fiction full-length live-action films. No documentaries, no shorts, no animated films, no television shows. That still left me with a long list that keeps growing.
Here is the list of films I plan to watch for this project. Please feel free to post films you think I should add to this list.
Summary: Petty criminal Dean struggles to raise his autistic son alone, and his life appears to be going off-track until psychologist Stevie arrives to help them both.
Summary: All Thomas wants is a normal adolescence but his autistic brother, Charlie, thwarts his every opportunity. Will Thomas, with the help of his girlfriend, Jackie, accept his brother?
Summary: Cody, a little girl abandoned by her mother and raised by her aunt, a nurse, is kidnapped. The girl's guardian, aided by an F.B.I. agent, learn that Cody has supernatural abilities, and the abductees are a Satanic cult willing to do anything to gain them.
Summary: After his wife dies of cancer, an overworked engineer struggles to care for his son with autism. His son in response to bullying regresses into a fantasy world escape.
Summary: Psychologist Dr. Matthew Clark is the head of the Crawthorne State Training Institute, one of the first boarding schools for developmentally challenged children. Dr. Clark is sympathetic ...
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Summary: An autistic girl with powerful martial art skills looks to settle her ailing mother's debts by seeking out the ruthless gangs that owe her family money.
Countries: ThailandLanguages: Thai, Japanese, English
Summary: Noah Connelly is a boxer with a tireless opponent: Autism. But when he meets a dancer named Alexia, the two discover together that the toughest fight may be not be of the body, but of the heart.
Summary: Michael, a young autistic boy who has trouble with verbalization but a real talent for technology, uses a computer to plead for help after being molested at his school.
Summary: The emotional story of a young man in a mental institution for teens who begins to understand his psychosis in the environment of others with mental and emotional problems. He finds ...
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Summary: A nine-year-old amateur inventor, Francophile, and pacifist searches New York City for the lock that matches a mysterious key left behind by his father, who died in the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001.
Summary: Nina Eberlin comes home to visit her now-divorced parents and while looking through a collection of pictures taken by her father and herself, she reflects on how the pictures illustrate the...
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Summary: The poignant yet humor filled story about a single mother of a teenager severely impacted by autism, forced to reckon with her daughter's future. As her child becomes an adult, what used to...
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Summary: An unapologetically romantic tale about an adulterous young woman struggling to rebuild her life and a painter suffering from undiagnosed Asperger's syndrome.
Summary: Mickey Tussler, an autistic pitcher, joins a minor-league baseball team and has a profound effect on the team and manager Arthur "Murph" Murphy over the course of a season.
Summary: A bachelor becomes the unwilling guardian of his autistic, intellectually disabled sister; then an experimental treatment works a dramatic change in her brain and his attitude.
Summary: An Indian Muslim man with Asperger's syndrome takes a challenge to speak to the President of the United States seriously and embarks on a cross-country journey.
Countries: India, USA, United Arab EmiratesLanguages: Hindi, English
Summary: A young autistic woman runs away from her caregiver in an attempt to submit her 500-page manuscript to a "Star Trek" writing competition in Hollywood. On her journey there, she must conquer an unknown world full of challenges.
Summary: A socially introverted game designer named William Borchert has barely left his house in years. Once reunited with Olivia, the girl he had loved since high school, he fights to live with ...
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Summary: A young couple is overjoyed when they find out that, after having had two girls, the wife is pregnant again, and this time it will be a son. However, the boy turns out to autistic. Unhappy ...
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Summary: The story of an autistic youth named Ricky who, after a particularly difficult day at school, escapes into the subways. It's here that he starts his real journey, on a days-long voyage of ...
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Summary: Sheltered by his grandparents, Luke, a young man with autism, is thrust into a world that doesn't expect anything from him. But Luke is on a quest for a job and true love. And he isn't taking no for an answer.
Summary: Suzie, a 58 year old depressed taxi driver on the night shift. On Halloween, she finds a 10 year old autistic boy in the back seat of her taxi with 50$ and an address. As Suzie arrived at ...
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Summary: A young man in a small Midwestern town struggles to care for his mentally-disabled younger brother and morbidly obese mother while attempting to pursue his own happiness.
Summary: A socially awkward teenage math prodigy finds new confidence and new friendships when he lands a spot on the British squad at the International Mathematics Olympiad.
Countries: UKLanguages: English, Mandarin
If you wish to see which movies I have watched so far and what I have rated them, then check out my list on Letterboxd.
Mortal Engines (2018), directed by newcomer
Christian Rivers, is based on a young adult novel of the same name by British
author Philip Reeve. It takes place in a
post-apocalyptic world that was destroyed by a “60-minute war” some
thousand years ago. Those that survived created steampunk like mobile cities
that go around devouring towns and minor
cities for their resources, with the citizens being
integrated into the dominating city.
Mortal Engines (2018)
Action, Adventure, Fantasy | 128min | 14 December 2018 (USA)
6.1
Director:Christian RiversWriter:Fran Walsh, Philippa BoyensStars:Hera Hilmar, Robert Sheehan, Hugo WeavingSummary: A mysterious young woman, Hester Shaw, emerges as the only one who can stop a giant, predator city on wheels devouring everything in its path. Feral, and fiercely driven by the memory of her mother, Hester joins forces with Tom Natsworthy, an outcast from London, along with Anna Fang, a dangerous outlaw with a bounty on her head.
The most exciting part of the story is the beginning before the title even appears
when the roving city of London devours a
mining town. It is filled with beautifully interesting
CGI with high action chase scenes until the
mining town is engulfed by London. After that point, all the action scenes seem overdone
with CGI and predictable fight sequences.
The main
characters, Hester Shaw (Hera Hilmar) and Tom Natsworthy (Robert Sheehan) could
be exciting if they were allowed to
develop some depth. Hester is depicted as a revenge crazy loner who eventually
learns the power of friendship. Tom is a budding historian who wants to be an
aviator and who is completely lost at what to do when he is pushed off his
traveling home of London.
These
heroes have a lot to contend with. There
is the power-hungry Thaddeus Valentine (Hugo Weaving) who throws them both
off London and who has a plan to build a
weapon to destroy the wall that protects Asia from cities like London. There are the cannibalistic
southerners who try to sell them at auction as meat. And then there is Shrike
(Stephen Lang), an undead cyborg, who raised Hester and is now trying to kill
her for breaking a promise.
The story
is not only predictable, but it is also highly derivative. From the
budding love story between the two heroes
to Hester having the only solution to save the day, it feels like they took all
the tropes from good action adventure stories and made into one high adventure,
overpacked, steampunk, post-apocalyptic narrative. The story is a combination of Star Wars, Mad Max, and The Terminator.
After all, London is a “Death Star” destroying other settlements in a dystopian resource depleted landscape. There is
even a rebel alliance, called the Anti-Traction League, that saves Tom and Hester from
being auctioned to cannibals. The rebel who is most prominent is Anna Fang
(Jihae) who looks like a character straight from The Matrix. The league needs
Hester, an orphan with daddy issues, as she is “their only hope.” But she is too busy running away from the killer
cyborg.
This film
could have been great if they focused more on the main plot and less on the
subplots. Shrike was more of an annoyance to the story than an exciting subplot and obstacle. He almost
needs a film of his own. The southerners are superfluous to the story as they
only there to add another obstacle that has
nothing to do with the main plot. Supporting characters like Katherine
Valentine (Leila George) and Bevis Pod (Ronan Raftery) almost get forgotten in
parts, so that they can fit in Shrike and the southerners, even though they are
essential to the main plotline.
If you love CGI and impressive world building and don’t mind stories that don’t have much depth, then this is a great film to watch. Otherwise, you might as well save your money and go see the next Star Wars installment.