Any Good Movies About AS?

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Mozart and the Whale
Adam
Snow Cake
I am Khan
Ben X
House of Cards
Molly
The Other Sister
Dancer in the Dark
The Pit
Simple Simon

It’s funny how two different people diagnosed with AS can watch a movie about AS, and one of them will love it because they think it’s incredibly accurate and the other will hate it because they think it’s incredibly inaccurate. I could barely relate to anyone in Mozart and the Whale aside from a few traits here and there, but I’ve heard others praise it for its accuracy. On the other hand, I’ve heard others criticize Adam for not being accurate, but I could relate to it so well that it may as well have been a movie about me. I think it’s important to remember that we’re all on a spectrum, and not everyone with AS will be the same.

I also have mixed feelings about Mozart and the Whale. It definitely IS exaggerated and too stereotyped in my opinion. My impression was that the writers and producers did not bother to really learn about the nature of AS but only picked a few traits, which they overused. The main thing that bothered me was that all the so-called Aspies talked too loudly all the time. That got to be really annoying after a few minutes. Many Aspies will often talk either too softly or too loudly (presumably from lack of regular speech usage), but wiht the withdrawn nature and lack of confidence, I would guess that most of us speak too softly most of the time (sounds like a good poll idea to me). Two things DID get my attention as being right on target though. The stacks of newspapers in Donald's apartment looked so much like the stacks of boxes in my apartment (collected items) and the visual map that pops up in front of him while driving his cab is so much like my own visual memory of things, although still quite ovverdone.

A much, much better movie about AS (and my favorite) is always Ben X, but you can only get the widescreen version in the Flemish language with English subtitles. It is still well worth reading those subtitles for an hour and a half to see that movie.

Then there is always the quintessential Rain Man, but evenybody knows about that one.

One that is often missed is "The Last Picture Show" (1971). Billy, the kid who sweeps the store is autistic.

Here is a late addition of a link to a list I found while trying to get info on some of the movies listed by Chenjiringu. I know there are many more than shown on this short list though.

http://www.imdb.com/list/0sigYQ1Icp0/

While it's not 'about' autism the film The Man Who Wasn't There (Coen brothers starring Billy Bob Thornton) focuses on a man who is likely an Aspie. It's also excellent. It's rather hilarious despite being solemn most of the time (my favorite type of film).

I recently watched 'Zodiac' and felt the makers were trying to hint that the main character (played by Jake Gyllenhaal) had Aspergers, although it wasn't mentioned at all. It's based on a true story and I don't know what the real Robert Graysmith is actually like, but I've read that he's an eccentric obsessive and doesn't answer his own phone.

Nobody here seems to have mentioned a 2010 movie called "Fly Away" starring Beth Broderick (Sabrina) and Ashley Rickards (One Tree Hill)
http://trailers.apple.com/trailers/independent/flyaway/

Ashley Rickards performance as a LFA teenager was incredibly realistic. The movie had some important themes;
- Rickards character was disruptive at special school and the advice to her mother (Beth Broderick) was that she should be institutionalised
- The mother fought tooth and nail to keep her daughter home but realised with time that being a single mother she could not cope with her daughter's meltdowns and the need for constant care.
- the general public were generally not understanding of the mother's problems (not surprising) one lady scolding her for bringing her child into public.
- Eventually (not unlike Rainman) the mother agrees that the best thing for her daughter is to be institutionalized as it was "all for the best".

Like Rainman the ending was somewhat disappointing, I would have hoped that the mother found true love (from her neighbour played by Greg Germann) and saved her daughter from the prospect of living in a institution. Secondly the institution seemed a little too good to be true? like autism heaven. I'm not sure if the writer was trying to send sought of message? in this day and age where movies have the opportunity to educate, the opportunity was missed for demonstrating you could bring the local community together to support this young woman in her struggles. The impression it left me is society (at least in middle class America) still has no time for autism.

I've seen Mozart and the Whale and Adam. I felt Adam was better but Mozart and the Whale potentially provides a greater spectrum of AS with multiple autistic characters.

The main character in August Rush has a lot of Aspie characteristics.

Although the film doesn't give him an official diagnosis, I wonder if Jack Nicholson's character in "As Good As It Gets" isn't a little aspergerish. For sure, he has OCD--but so do some people with AS.

Perhaps also, the title character in "Little Voice"--whose social phobia is coupled with an amazing ability to mimic famous singers from the big band era.