CODA & Temple Grandin

Trailer (an Apple+ release): CODA 

Full movie (Hotstar): Temple Grandin

So much to say about these movies. Both lovely in their own ways. 

CODA, a beautiful, simple, simply told story, is about a teenage girl living with her D/ deaf parents and brother. Much of the narrative revolves around the girl having to choose between pursuing an education in music and staying back in her small town to be the hearing facilitator for her family's new fishing business. Surreal performances, a simple but profoundly well-executed plot, and filmmaking that stays true to the theme it addresses by employing spectrum and disabled actors to play the lead roles. 

Temple Grandin is the eponymous true story about the life and growing up years of the autistic genius Temple Grandin. Always amazes me how well some directors are able to crunch 10-15 years of a person's life down into a 2-hour story and still make it all seem so coherent. Also, exemplary performances by Claire Danes and Catherine O'Hara. 

On a more personal note, despite Grandin's "odd" childhood behaviours and infantile schizophrenia diagnosis I find it really inspiring how she grows up to become so mindful of exactly in what ways she's different from her peers, and how those differences could best be used to help society. Really makes me wonder if long-term mindfulness is key to achieving stability of thought/ mood/ emotion in spectrum minds, and if that's one of the many ways in which unhindered assimilation into society can happen for low-functioning ASD individuals. 

The motif of the doors opening for Grandin and her passing through them into other worlds (a metaphor for finding success in life) is reassuring in some way, probably because autistics need help in some areas of life and seeing what they're capable of giving back it might be the universe's way of 'making things happen' for them? Don't know. 

But I would like to believe that :).