Autism Acceptance Week 2024: The Return of Spectrum Sinema - The Directors Cut....

 

Well, you best get him a plaster then!

 

Yes, dear reader(s) it's that time of the year again where I drag this out for its annual - slightly rewritten - airing.

You may not know/care that in 'the real life' I spend the time between drawing stuff for a living and wandering around meeting various folk to find out what they actually want me to draw (it keeps me off - well on - the streets I guess)  inanely blogging about films. 

And sometimes (not often mind) serious organizations will even ask me to talk about them.

As was the case with the Autism Through Cinema project who invited me to wax lyrically - and probably a wee bit over-excitedly - about THE greatest animated movie ever, Disney/Pixars Cars.

By the way you, if that wasn't sweary enough for you, you can find my usual cinematic ramblings here but beware as it's frequently not safe for work according to Google.

And it's probably not safe to read at home too.

Especially if you care about the proper use of grammar.

You can probably tell by now that I quite like 'the films'.

You could say it's my 'special interest' as nobody actually Autistic calls a hobby.
 

Anyway a few years back I got into a discussion with my partner in crime (and token NT person in the house*) Rho about how most films dealing with Autism are pretty turgid affairs full of struggle, heartache and defying the odds to live a meaningful 'normal' life and how, occasionally it'd be cool to see someone on the Spectrum "blow sh*t up".

After watching The Accountant I really should be more careful what I wish for.

Anyway after much chat, wine and more chat we came up with this  handy (and quite small) print out and throw away guide to the best Spectrum-based cinema available that you may not have seen.

And more importantly not realised was actually Autism-centric.

Swoon.

DRIVE (2011) - Neo-noir thrills meet arthouse style in Nicolas Winding Refn's high octane heist classic.

Ryan Gosling's uber-cool unnamed driver has become the unofficial hero of ASD in cinema, showing that characters on the Spectrum don't have to be geeky and freaky but can be not only super cool but 'a real human bean' too.....The Spectrum at it's sexiest.

And with a cool coat to boot.

 

Talking of Ryan Gosling, between this, Blade Runner 2049 and Lars And The Real Girl he seems to be the go to actor in ‘The Hollywood’ for Autie-style action but the subtlest one must be LA LA LAND (2016) where Ryan plays an incredibly dreamy and uber talented Autie guy named Sebastian who meets – and falls for - a ginger NT girl named Mia, teaching her single-minded determination and the history of jazz whilst in return she teaches him the neurotypical skill of heartbreak thru' the medium of song and dance.

DARK FLOORS (2008) - Finnish Eurovision stars Lordi write and star in probably the best Silent Hill adaptation ever made.

A creepy and kooky spookfest centering around Sarah, an Autistic girl residing in the decrepit St. Mary's Hospital.

Trigger.

When her concerned father attempts to take her home he inadvertently drops her crayons and in the confusion mixes the reds with the blue and yellow causing a portal to another dimension to open leaving a ragtag group of patients and staff fighting for their lives with only Sarah able to save them.

Luckily all the corridors are signposted.

BLADE RUNNER (1982) - What can you say about Ridley Scott's dystopian classic that hasn't been said before - and by much better folk than me?
Well how about the fact that the whole replicant plot (with it's quest to be 'human' - or even to be accepted by humans and it's "Voight-Kampff" empathy test among other things) can be seen as a metaphor for Autism.

"Hey Harrison..it looks like rain, man."

The analysis/discussion on this goes much further but would take up an entire post on a blog much more intelligent than this one.

Tho' I did attempt it once.

Oh yes and it's very blue, almost as blue as Thomas and Rainbow Dash forced into a blender and poured into a very blue glass.

MANHUNTER (1986) - Michael Mann's adaptation of Thomas Harris' Red Dragon features the first appearance of not only Hannibal Lecter (or Lektor as he's known here) but of top FBI criminal profiler Will Graham, better known now - and officially an Aspie - thanks to the Brian Fuller TV show 'Hannibal'.

Smart, sexy and quite possibly the second blue-est film ever made.
 

Stance.

CHARLIE'S ANGELS: FULL THROTTLE (2003) - McG's action comedy sequel features the frankly magnificent (and undisputed king of the Spectrum) Crispin Glover as the Autistic hair obsessed Thin Man in a role gratefully expanded from the original, probably his greatest role outside 'Simon Says'.

No caption required.

Oh, go on then....outside The Wizard of Gore remake.

And River's Edge.

or Willard.

Me and Crispin not up a tree.

 

 

If ginger girls on boats are more your thing (and not just mine I hope) then check out Neasa Hardiman's Sea Fever which features an Autistic marine biology student - Siobhán - who has to endure a week on a ragged fishing trawler in order to complete her degree, much to her annoyance.

Her - and the crews - life is turned upside down tho' when a strange sub-aquatic life form ensnares the boat and slowly begins to infect members of the crew....

"Am I ginger?"

If it's scifi you're after then look no further than the light blue hued tones of everyone's favourite version of 2001: A Space Odyssey for kids - Star Trek The Motion Picture.

The cinematic equivalent of lying in a really well equipped sensory room ST:TMP (as folk call it) is so laid back and leisurely as  to be almost horizontal with no distractingly bright colours (other than blue) to disturb from the overall comfiness of the film and any emotional responses you should have are helpfully cued by the gorgeous Jerry Goldsmith score.

It even has an overture to get you in the mood.

And as a plus point it wins out over the aforementioned Kubrick classic by having the decency to actually explain what happens at the films climax.

Proper genius.

And there's a 4K version of the directors cut out on shiny disc so you can watch it in a loop forever.

 

"Ahead Spectrum factor one!"

 

But if Gialli tinged blood and sex is more your thing check out Nicolas Winding Refn's ode to clothes and probably THE greatest ASD fueled fantasy ever made that doesn't feature Replicants, Red Dragons or Ryan Gosling - The Neon Demon.

There's a full review here but all you need to know is that it's the cinematic vision of what the whole damn world would be like if Leo Kanner's kids ruled it.
 

Think The X-Men but with tidier hair (and rooms) and you're halfway there.

See it or be terminally neurotypical for ever.

 

 

 

But what if I want an Autistic date movie that's a wee bit more realistic (and subtle) I hear you cry.

Well then you could do much worse than watch Stephen Frears 2000 adaptation of Nick Hornby's High Fidelity which is - to my mind - probably THE most realistic depiction of the joys - and perils - of Autism and relationships ever.

 

 

 

 

For those of you who've not seen it, the plot revolves around music-obsessed Rob Gordon (John Cusack at his finest) who - after splitting from his long term love Laura decides to revisit every one of his exes to find the real reason for each break up.

 

So far, so Autie.

But it gets even better when we experience Robs day job - you see he owns a record store called Championship Vinyl where he and his employees Dick (Todd Louiso) and Barry (Sir Jack of Black), armed with their encyclopedic knowledge of all things music, spend every day compiling "Top 5" lists for every conceivable occasion, rip the utter piss out of their customers and - very occasionally - sell a couple of records.

 

 Like Ghostbusters before it (with it's dual Autistic characters Ray - the full of wonder and excitable one - Stanz and the methodical and serious Egon Spengler) High Fidelity does the rather clever trick of taking the most popular Autistic stereotypes and splitting them across the three main (male) characters.

Rob is the subtle, oddly obsessed type who's made his 'special interests' into a sorta career and manages to coast by acting as if he's actually a character in a movie rather than real life, his normally good natured demeanor, fairly sturdy social skills and good looks almost totally mask his obvious Autistic traits.

Dick is your stereotypically awkward, mumbling one who is uncomfortable around anything but records whilst Barry is loud, brass and filterless with a confidence that would shame a show off....

Yes dear reader although we all aspire to Rob we're actually all Barry if we're honest.

Except the few Dick's I know.

 

There's so much more to it tho' that I'm seriously thinking of writing a huge post about it at some point.

 

And yes that's a threat.

I love this pair and so should you.

 

Brilliantly played on every level (I'm not saying Nick Hornby is one of our mob but...) this should be the go to for anyone embarking on a relationship with an Autistic guy....at least then when we piss you off you can't say we didn't warn you.

 

 

 

 

 

 

But the most Autistic movie(s) of all time?

It's pretty obvious really.

And it's also THE bluest** hued cinema of all time.

Especially the second one.

I could wax lyrical for hours as to the reasons for this but it's always easier to show than tell.

Not convinced?

Well here you go.

Suffice to say it's a fact, just accept it.

They should really just name it Trautism and have done with it.

Scarily enough tho' a few years back someone decided that what the world needed was a Tron Legacy/Star Trek The Motion Picture mash-up just to send the Autism levels off the scale.

In a good way that is.

And you can find this piece of cinematic perfection here.

Enjoy.


A couple of special 'not really but could be' awards go to Zach Lipovsky and Adam B. Stein's Freaks and Gabriele Mainetti's Freaks Out!

 

Freaks - without giving too much away - tells the story of Chloe, a 7 year old girl whose  father forbids her from ever leaving the house - or from even looking outside their boarded-up windows - for fear of the people outside seeing her for what she really is.

A freak to be feared and ultimately destroyed.

Her days are spent being taught by her father how to pass for a 'normal' person in the hope that her differences aren't discovered, Chloe spends more and more time wanting to be a normal girl, playing with other children and eating ice cream from the dilapidated ice cream van that regularly stops outside her house.

Eventually building up the courage to defy her dad, Chloe escapes to join Mr. Snowcone the ice cream man on an journey where she will finally uncover the truth about her father and why he is so desperate to keep her hidden.

On the surface a real world superhero tale in the tradition of The X Men - but with untidy beards, Freaks does an amazing job of showing how Autistic folk use masking to fit in in an attempt to appear 'normal' (as NT folk would have it) - from the stares and comments encountered by Chloe in the outside world, the film is a perfect example of NT society writ large, obsessed as it is with fitting in and ultimately fearing anything different whilst Mainetti's Freaks Out! tells the story of the Circus Mezzapiotta and its performers -  Matilde, a girl who produces electricity and electrocutes anyone who touches her; Cencio, an albino with the power to control insects; Fulvio, a "man-beast" with hypertrichosis and endowed with superhuman strength and Mario, a dwarf with the ability to manipulate metal objects.

 

 

 

With World War II coming to a head and the survival of the Circus at risk, its kindly owner and surrogate dad to the group, Israel proposes that they all escape to America, much to Fulvio's chagrin. You see he reckons they'd all be better auditioning for the prestigious Berlin Zircus, a sumptuous celebration of all things Nazi that has been staged in the centre of Rome.

 

Unfortunately our motley crew don't realise that the Zircus is actually a cover for the six fingered psychic Nazi pianist Franz who is desperately trying to find the four super-beings he saw in a drug-fueled premonition that will help him avert Hitler's suicide and save the Third Reich and it's for this reason that he created the Zircus in the first place, to identify all the freaks in the area, forcing them to undergo deadly experiments in an attempt to identify the saviors. 

Seriously who'd have thought that an Italian horror/fantasy about a freak show set in 1943 Rome would not only be brilliantly entertaining and uplifting but also one of THE best film about the treatment of the disabled by the Nazi's ever made?
 

Trust me tho', it's great.

 

 

 

 

 

Just a word of advice when it comes to judging the Autistic merits of cinema in relation to the colour blue, beware of Blue Is The Warmest Colour, I came to it imagining a Kubrick-esque style Autistic film-fest and was shocked and surprised to find that it was, in fact totally neuro-typical in it's storytelling.

Tho' it did feature a couple of toothy French ladies having sex with each other.

A lot.

Fancy trainers not shown.

Oh yes and Craig Baldwin's Spectres of The Spectrum has absolutely sod all to do with Autism (tho' from the editing I'd like to think that there was a fair bit of it behind the camera) but is still worth a look if you like grainy stock footage cut into a rudimentary scifi-style plot.

And 1950's flying helmets.

Hel-met.

*Yup it's true, the four of us have to cope with having a non-Autistic person in the house, it's really weird - she doesn't need a schedule, can eat what she likes and doesn't line the DVD collection up with a ruler.

Freak.

And where is the support group for us?


**Oh and for the record I like blue.

And red so get over it.