Before getting into this film, I want to show you all something:
That video was made in collaboration with Autism Speaks, an
organisation that, for me and many other autistics, has become emblematic of
just how much work needs to be done when it comes to autism awareness. It shows
a level of sickening propaganda that it has also become an emblem of how we see
the world perceiving us. It’s frankly hard to sit through without feeling like
a pariah on one’s own planet. And it was directed by one Alfonso Cuarón,
director of Y Tu Mamá También, Children Of God, Gravity and a bunch of other
work more worth having one’s name attached to than this shit.
I bring all this up because, as I get into his latest
effort, know that I am struggling with trying to separate his place as a
genuine cinematic marvel with his culpability in something that haunts the
autism movement to this day, especially since that very video is one of the
reasons why I’m an advocate for the cause in the first place: I don’t want this
shit hanging around and making things harder for me and others.
Okay, rant over: Let’s actually get into the film itself.
