EPISODE 328: MENTAL ILLNESS IN FILM

BSP Comment Board Pro says:

Autism isn’t exactly illness, but it’s portrayed strangely too. Abed from Community is like, the one respectful spot-on version I think… most of the time, it’s like, oracular, like magical retards in a trance with super powers like counting falling toothpicks in mid-air instantly, or solving mad encryption security with very little formal knowledge of mathematics, like the kid in Mercury Rising. Also often having some mystical empathic connection to livestock, when in reality horses are very scary and anxiety inducing =P

I guess the main overreach is just making autistic “powers” too impressive and useful, don’t get me wrong, knowing train routes or dinosaur phylogenetic trees is super cool, but movie autistics are like Voldemort level and the reality is more like Gandalf the Grey

Jeff Clark says:

A great movie in my opinion was Young Adult with Carlize Theron. Her character was pretty despicable mostly due to her narcissism and depression.