Excerpts from a review of Sia's film Music, by @lukebuckmaster:
"There is no question that an #autistic actor would have given the film greater authenticity, which it really needs."
theguardian.com/film/2021/jan/…
"There is no question that an #autistic actor would have given the film greater authenticity, which it really needs."
theguardian.com/film/2021/jan/…
Maddie Ziegler "is not on the #autism spectrum herself. When the trailer landed last November it went down like a lead balloon, drawing ire from the #disability community for not casting the real deal, and for appearing to have what some saw as an ableist gaze."
"...Sia fired back with since-deleted Tweets... she insisted, for instance, that she had originally cast an #autistic person in the lead role – never mind that interview in which she claimed to have written the movie specifically for Zeigler. It all felt a bit icky."
On straight up copying Rain Man:
"In Sia’s film, as in Barry Levinson’s 1988 road movie, the #autistic characters feel more like dramatic tools to improve the circumstances of neurotypical people, rather than fully-fledged humans who think, feel and act on their own terms."
"In Sia’s film, as in Barry Levinson’s 1988 road movie, the #autistic characters feel more like dramatic tools to improve the circumstances of neurotypical people, rather than fully-fledged humans who think, feel and act on their own terms."
"...outlandish musical numbers, [whisk] us to a surreal bright orange set for a message about how 'in my dreams my body does not control me'. This dangerously tilts the film in the direction of a pity narrative – which it largely, thankfully, avoids."
Kate Hudson's Zu "has a big 'whatcha lookin’ at?' type personality and – borrowing the words of her kindly new potential love interest Ebo (Leslie Odom Jr) – a 'dark girl vibe going on'."
(I can't even... 🤦♀️ Would y'all like a side of racism with your ableism?)
(I can't even... 🤦♀️ Would y'all like a side of racism with your ableism?)
"By the time the closing credits roll, one gets the unfortunate sense that several people involved – ie Ziegler, Hudson, Odom, maybe even Sia – would like this film to be washed off their CVs with a high-powered hose."
Oof.
Oof.
Links to more reviews (they seem to be mostly negative so far):
amp.smh.com.au/culture/movies…
perthnow.com.au/community-news…
timeout.com/movies/music
amp.smh.com.au/culture/movies…
perthnow.com.au/community-news…
timeout.com/movies/music
"...the singer urged people to see her film before judging it.
...the film is now out in the world to be judged for what it is: an overlong Sia music video that uses its #autistic character Music as a prop to further the stories of the neurotypical characters." - Perth Now
...the film is now out in the world to be judged for what it is: an overlong Sia music video that uses its #autistic character Music as a prop to further the stories of the neurotypical characters." - Perth Now
"Having the narrative flow interrupted by an album’s worth of Sia music videos gets old very quickly and these sequences are not a replacement for giving Music a genuine point of view.
She is ultimately sidelined in favour of a stock-standard story about Zu..." - Perth Now
She is ultimately sidelined in favour of a stock-standard story about Zu..." - Perth Now
"If Sia had really wanted to make a film for the #autism community, she could have funded #autistic creators to do just that." - Perth Now (Lucy Rutherford)
perthnow.com.au/community-news…
perthnow.com.au/community-news…
The dance scenes were "...designed to suggest the over-stimulation faced by Music – yet aren’t these breakout moments, with their hectic choreography, bright costumes and dazzling lighting, super-exclusionary of the very community the film is trying to represent?" - Time Out
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