PrincetonWilliams Reviews

Autism: The Musical (2007)

Excellent Movie. So well made.

[10/10 · 7 April 2008]

This was an excellent movie, an excellent documentary and one of the best I have seen in a long time. The director did a great job really keying to the strong points of each subject(character) particularly Wyatt. He is by far the most intriguing of all the subjects and the director's portrayal of him was absolutely perfect. There are some incredibly strong and emotional moments in this movie that will have you on the brink of tears or crying. The directors decision to just let Wyatt talk and be himself was absolutely the best directorial decision I have ever seen in any movie. His conversation with his mother is absolutely mesmerizing, he is so smart, he is so far beyond his years. It also really sets up the frustration that his parents have because he is smart enough to handle regular classes, yet he still doesn't fit. If he was my son, screw it you go to regular school and you show everybody. The most powerful moment in this film is when Lexi is typing to her mother, and she asks her to explain what Autism is and she can't get out the right words so she just says I love you. I almost cry just thinking about it, and as an actor I will always turn to that scene when I need to shell out emotions, Im surprised her mom didn't respond with more emotion but it is probably because Lexi does that quite often. The frustration of not being able to communicate with your children has got to be the most difficult thing about Autism.

I only have a few issues with the film but none to not recommend it. One of my biggest issues is that all of the children in the program are rich from what I saw from the movie. So I think the next group of kids for the miracle project should probably come from slightly different backgrounds. I'm interested to see how people who don't have money deal, because to be frank there are probably tons of kids who have autism that aren't diagnosed as such. They go to school everyday and struggle and struggle and they deal with teachers who don't care and who aren't sympathetic to their needs. So they dismiss them as bad, or crazy or whatever, or add, adhd. I mean seriously how easy would it be to take someone like Adam and label him as just a bad misbehaved kid. It would be terribly easy, and that's what happens to a lot of children. My other issue is that I would have liked to hear a little bit more about the exact diagnosis of the different children's autism, and what autism really is. I do understand that autism is a widely misunderstood disease so maybe that's why.

THIS MOVIE IS EXCELLENT, I watch it every time it comes on. And to be honest it changed the way I viewed some things because I myself have had some problems communicating and it really showed me the frustration my family might have from me doing that.

Blue (1993)

Blue, Blue and more Blue.

[7/10 · 29 January 2007]

If you like the color Blue then this movie is for you. Because that's the long and short of it. If you close your eyes you might get more out of it besides retinal strain. Meant to be a philosophical journey this film is not for the easily distracted and/or the intellectually impaired. This is a thinking person's movie and it definitely requires a thinking person's mind. If you like this movie let me recommend to you another movie made in 2004 called "What the Bleep Do We Know?". This movie will hit home with people who can relate to the director. I know a got more out of it then most because I can relate to his continuous hospital stays. The idea of waiting and waiting for something to come on the screen mirrors what the director is talking about when he is waiting and waiting to either lose his sight, or his imminent death from aids. A good movie, but definitely not for someone who is not intellectual.

What the #$*! Do We (K)now!? (2004)

Theory, Theories, and more theories

[10/10 · 27 June 2006]

To really appreciate a movie like this you have to release all of your inner inhibitions and everything that you have been conditioned too throughout your lives. It's hard for people to do this, and religious people have even a tougher time of doing so. To hear that there isn't an ultimate creator for them to throw their problems on or to rely on is disheartening and scary. And in some ways this movie suggests that this is the case. The fact is that when you try to label the movie as fact or fiction then you are missing the point. The point of the movie and all science basically is to be thought provoking. To look at all aspects of reality and to ask questions so that you yourself can become an intellectual being. Being intellectually sound can help you to live a life in which you feel you have more control over. Many instances in the movie this is spoken of. All I'm saying is you need to take the movie at face value and understand that it truly is a revolutionary film because it attempts and does a pretty damn good job at making quantum physics (or what some of you have called new age religion) easy to understand.