My First Review and Global Issue Discussion - Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

So for my first review ever, I’m going to talk about a topic under the IB Principles of Culture, Identity and Community. I’m going to talk about negative depictions of autism in media with a movie that I and the website wearemoviegeeks.com equate to being the autistic equivalent of Song of the South. If you don’t know what that movie is, GOOD. And if you don’t know what Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close is, BETTER.

Thanks, wearemoviegeeks.com, for this image.

So this movie, directed by Stephen Daldry and based on the book by Jonathan Safran Foer, is focused on a kid with high-functioning autism named Oskar, played by Thomas Horn. He was very close with his dad, who died in the 9/11 attacks and who left a final voicemail to his family which Oskar deleted for some reason. Years later, still struggling with recovery, Oskar finds a key in in of his dad’s vases with the name “Black” written on it. Before he died, Oskar’s dad liked to take his son on treasure hunts throughout New York and convinced that this is his dad’s last puzzle for him, Oskar sets out into New York to solve it.

That sounds like an at-least interesting movie, but in practice…oh, my giddy aunt.

This movie, like this meme, is outdated by a decade, unamusing and just sad to see now.

Thomas Horn plays Oskar with every autistic cliché in the book. He has asthma, he has anxiety issues, he’s sensitive to loud noises, he can barely communicate and has savant syndrome as well – he has goddamn EVERYTHING! He’s also just a really annoying and unlikeable character and a poor role model in a PG-rated film. It gets to the point where he’s showing so many clichés that I want to punch him in the face. And my cousin Charlie also has high-functioning autism, so that takes a feat.

And by the way, Horn isn't an actor who can respectfully treat a real-life mental disorder. He's a former star of Child Jeopardy. Because the world is a cruel place.

How the movie portrays Oskar overcoming his condition is also really damn stupid. At the end of the movie, when the “treasure quest” is revealed to not be a quest at all, Oskar’s mother (Sandra Bullock slumming) reveals that she contacted everyone Oskar met before he went on his journey, meaning that he could never have found closure and be a proper person without the help of a dominating adult figure. That’s not how autism works in the slightest!

An autistic kid, especially high-functioning autistic kids, thinks and observes for himself, and adapts to their environment without need for an adult micro-managing their self-realisation. The fact that he could never have done anything without the help of his mother (which is also the exact plot of The Blind Side, also with Sandra Bullock) is bullsh*t!

Now generally, with depictions of autism in media, there are few that I consider outstanding, with the majority either being condescendingly offensive, very basic depictions such as Barry Levinson's Rain Man or, in the case of The Fanatic (pictured below), downright hilarious.

Yes, this is how John Travolta thinks autistic people work. This movie does exist. It's also directed by the lead singer of Limp Bizkit. What a strange world we live in.

While there are TV shows and movies that depict it accurately, such as x+y and Everything’s Gonna Be Okay (a good recommend), they mainly show autistic children and teenagers instead of adults and depict them as sort of outsiders rather that people that are integral to society. That’s why, in my opinion, the most positive depiction of an autistic character in the entirety of media is Patricia Tannis from the Borderlands video game series.

Borderlands may be one of the most progressive video game series ever with its depiction of multi-ethnic characters, LGBTIQ+ characters and characters with mental disabilities, which is surprising for a series which literally contains a character named Midgemong (a combination of anti-dwarf and anti-Down syndrome slurs) and encourages you to indiscriminately murder.

In the case of Patricia Tannis, she’s a character who is open about her autism and has autistic traits, but she doesn’t rely on other people, she has her own ambitions, her own character and personality as well as a strong humour and ability to communicate without any clichés. She is not a vehicle for drama, but an everyday person. And as an autistic person, hearing her narrate her time on the planet of Pandora was like listening to audio recordings of myself talking to my co-workers about whatever I was doing in my weird slightly-stoned, overly cheerful tone. It was slightly uncanny how GearBox Software pulled off such an accurate portrayal, so I assume it was purely accidental.

THAT’S a good depiction of autism, and it's also how many LGBTQI+ positive films depict their characters as well. But it’s the exact opposite in Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close.

So in terms of dealing with a global issue and showing it to an average audience, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close gets a 0. It’s offensive, off-putting and not even entertaining.

In terms of filmmaking, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close is rather disappointing, considering it’s from the director of Billy Elliot and the writer of The Insider and A Star is Born. It is very sugary without any real dramatic heft or spice, and it thinks so highly of itself that it’s paced quite poorly. The highlight of the movie is the late Max von Sydow as the character of “the Renter”, who communicates non-verbally, and von Sydow brings so much character with just his facial expressions. Unfortunately, von Sydow, Tom Hanks and a passable musical score aren’t enough to save this dreadful film. As a movie, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close gets a 3/10.

How this interminable movie makes me feel.

Well, that’s my blog for today. Please tune in next time for whatever I talk about next, and have a lovely day.