Any Good Movies About AS?

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Just wondering. Any suggestions?

Mozart and the Whale is the best I've seen. Maybe it's the only I've seen. Anyway parts of it are quite true-to-life and others aren't, in my estimation. It's about two adult Aspies and it's a romantic... dramedy I guess!

Lars and the Real Girl has an Aspiesh character. It's a good movie but Asperger's is not a theme of the film or even mentioned.

I personally find Steve Carrell to be quite Aspieish in The 40-Year-Old Virgin and in a lot of the characters he plays in other movies! Like... Dinner for Schmucks. Overall not a movie I'd otherwise watch but Steve Carrell and Paul Rudd make it pretty darn entertaining.

Umm... if I'm remembering correctly Adam Sandler's character in Punch-Drunk Love is very Aspiesh. Good movie!

La Nana is a Spanish movie about a maid who doesn't necessarily have Asperger's but I think she is very relatable to Aspies in any case. Her life's development has been delayed in many ways.

In an Aspie group I go to, we watched Mozart and the Whale at one meeting. I personally hate romantic comedies in general, but it was actually pretty good. The only thing that really bothered me about it was how it tries to make it seem like all Aspies have some sort of excellent savant skill. We're not all lucky like that.

I liked Adam better than Mozart and the Whale.

Adam is much better the mozart and the whale.

see also: Snow Cake

Mary and MAx is the best aspie film by far, very charming.

Molly


nuff said

Quoting myself from another topic:

I've only seen "Rain Man" and "Temple Grandin". But I learned something from watching those movies, anyway.

I liked snow cake it was a good movie.

I've seen:

Rain Man
Temple Grandin
My Name is Khan
Adam
Mary & Max
Mozart and the Whale
Snow Cake

I should say I didn't actually hate any of these, although I had negative reactions to Rain Man for a long time. I also saw all of these in January, so it's been several months:

I first saw Rain Man when it was new, and it made me self-conscious in ways I could not explain at the time, and I'd kind of freak out at myself whenever I caught myself doing palilalia or echolalia. I've seen it again more recently, and I found it to be better than I recalled.

I actually enjoyed Temple Grandin a lot. I loved when they'd show her literal visualizations of things mainly because I do that too, but I think the movie itself was done fairly well, whatever my personal feelings are about Dr. Grandin (not negative, I just don't agree with her on everything). I keep catching myself trying to imitate her lines at the start, but I love imitating movie lines in general, so this isn't weird. For me.

My Name is Khan was good, although people who say it seems like two different movies almost (first half, second half) do have something there. I think it works out well and has some good commentary on post-9/11 US. This film also made me realize what it looks like when I don't make eye contact, which was a bit of a surprise. It may be that the actor was exaggerating, but I don't know.

I enjoyed Adam, although I found it to be my second least favorite (Rain Man was my least favorite). I can't fully put my finger on why, although to some extent, I think it was that I didn't find much to identify with in Adam. I liked the references to real books and some of the issues Adam had with independent living (although he is much better at it than I am). I had to laugh when I saw his freezer filled with several identical TV dinners - The last time I lived on my own (well, with housemates) I think I managed to eat four different meals over the course of the month.

Mary & Max was really good - surprisingly so, for me. The ending was well done.

Mozart & The Whale was unique in all these movies in that it showed several AS individuals. Also interesting in that it's based on a true story. Anyway, when I saw it I felt as if the characters' autistic traits were exaggerated, although I'm not sure how I feel about that now.

I liked Snow Cake, although I felt like in some ways Linda was kind of peripheral and central to the story at the same time. I do relate to her reactions whenever her space was invaded (like the kitchen being hers, chasing everyone out of the house).

I guess the two I really liked the most are Mary & Max and My Name is Khan. It's hard for me to judge which one is the best portrayal of autism or AS because I only really have myself to compare them to, and I am not necessarily (as far as I can tell) like any of the characters in the films, portrayed as they are by NTs and sometimes coming across almost like composites of two or more autistic people (does that make sense to anyone else?). I guess my third is Mozart & the Whale, but I really really want to read the book.

Jim Carey's movie characters certainly have a few AS traits.

Sorry to repeat this ad nauseum but isn't Temple Grandin and Mozart HFAs? and not an AS?

Mozart and the Whale is about people diagnosed with AS.

Temple Grandin, Snow Cake, and Rain Man are all about people diagnosed with autism.

My favourite ASD movie by far is Temple Grandin, but that is HFA, not AS.

I have noticed that in the movies with AS, the characters are always portrayed to be textbook Aspergers, with nearly all of the optional traits placed in, or they are portrayed as verbal savants who can do all these Mathematical calculations in their head etc.

I have yet to see a movie that gives a more realistic portrayal of an adult Aspie, one where he has social difficulties and special interests without being super intelligent, but has developed some compensatory skills to superficially look more well adjusted than the AS child condition.

I think also the character in Edward Scissorhands is supposed to be autistic

Edward Scissorhands is a constructed person, he can't have AS.

Having seen all the films: Aside from Rain Man I don't really see the point in making the HFA/AS distinction as far as the portrayals go. And, in real life, it is often difficult to distinguish between adults diagnosed either way.

The current Clinical distinction between HFA (AD) and AS is more useful at the age of childhood or adolescence, where the difference in speech and communication pragmatics is more obvious, so children with HFA would require more speech therapy in their early years so they can catch up. For adults however, there isn't much superficial difference between those that are HFA and AS, if they were both verbal and had average/above-average general intelligence.

There was another movie that had a character that had some AS traits but doesn't have AS. It was about a guy who collected Comic books or something, it was an Autobiography movie. I can't remember the name... does anybody know which movie I'm talking about?