The best film about Aspergers?

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Although it was not intentionally about Aspergers, American Splendor is in my opinion the best film there is about Aspergers. It is a comedy biopic about comic writer Harvey Pekar and his eccentric friends. The film is unusual, because the real people that the film is about, are interviewed in the film.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0305206/

The actor in the car with the monotone voice is Toby Radloff. The real Toby Radloff talks like that, its not exaggerated. I found the scene where real Toby and Harvey talk about loneliness just after Toby discusses his jelly bean hobby, a very typical of aspergers - weird hobby/social isolation. Other films about Asperger (Mozart an the Whale) were made by people who don't have Asperger's - I saw Mozart an the Whale and the actors in that did some sort of "Rainman lite", I didn't identify with anyone in that film. But I identified with Harvey Pekar in American Splendor, he seems like a typical Aspie (if there ever was one).

Did anyone else see American Splendor and think that some of the people in it were Aspies?

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=07vbOqtVScI[/youtube]

I just watched a film on the Science channel about a savant that had very good memory and seen people and objects in numbers.
Toward the end of the film he went and seen the guy that the movie Rainman was based on. I didn't catch the name of it though.

Was it this documentary about Daniel Tammet?

http://www.wisconsinmedicalsociety.org/ ... iel_tammet

American Splendor....great movie and very aspie.My bf and I saw it years ago before I had been DX with AS and we both identified with the characters.

I really liked American Splendor and thought both Pekar and Crumb seemed Aspie and Toby was definitely "classically autistic". I thought the historical context was right too as Pekar's wife wouldn't know anything about Asperger's at the time or terms like "high functioning" so she used other terms for Harvey and "borderline autistic" for Toby.
I thought it was funny for Harvey's wife to be diagnosing everyone to explain everything. But when her own life became so unbearable, she had to "just get her ass off the couch" and find something to do.

My husband and I watched this together and our brains were just on fire but not saying anything about Asperger's or autism. Then Harvey's wife says, "Use your inside voice!" and we just busted up laughing.

I've seen that, interesting show. Also interesting how when he was in Vegas he actually did his best by just letting his subconscious carry the math and going on instinct, he was able to split the deck 3 times in blackjack just by doing that!

That was a good clip... I'll have to see this movie sometime.

i bought the dvd for this one a while ago, but i couldn't get through the first 5 minutes... might have to take another look

How about Benny & Joon or One Hour Photo?

I felt a real connection with the guy in one hour photo! Although I'm not nerdy I'm just a bit off kilter.

Anybody see Ghost World? What about Steve Buscemi's character?

Try 'Bringing up baby'
Male character in that is aspie.

I saw Ghost World, I am very like Seymour (Steve Buscemi's character). Seymour was based on Robert Crumb, who is a friend of Terry Zwigoff. Terry met Robert Crumb through their shared record collecting hobby. I identified with Seymour's inability to find a partner, the only woman that eventually dated him was psychologically damaged in some way, that happened to me.

"To Be Interested in Old Music Is To Be a Social Outcast!" - Robert Crumb

I also saw the extraordinary documentary "Crumb" a few years ago (also by Terry Zwigoff) and I since bought it on DVD. Robert is an Aspie and his brother Charles had severe Asperger's. As a child, Charles had a debilitating Gilligan's Island obsession and spent several months dressed as a pirate. Sadly, Charles was a total recluse and committed suicide in 1994. Maxon Crumb is still alive and is also a recluse, additionally he is epileptic and his seizures cause him so experience intense religions visions. Thus he is obsessed with religion and lives the life of a saintly aesthetic.

God, I just read that Zwigoff did Bad Santa too. Did anyone notice that the kid in Bad Santa was a bit of an Aspie?

Harvey Pekar on Letterman in 1988

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iBr4NxujLvw[/youtube]

Four Minutes

Although the film is not actually about AS, Roger Bannister displays many traits of a very successful, high functioning individual with Asperger's. He is intelligent, has an encyclopedic knowledge of medical subject matter that helps him rise quickly to the top of his class and is shy and quiet. He looked at running as way to find friendship and the sense of belonging he felt was missing when he was a young boy.

Was that a real interview with that guy, or was it staged?

I thought Seymour{Robin Williams' character} had Aspergers just by his obsession with acceptance until I was told he had PTSD.