Aspie Movies?

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If you haven't seen it check out the 1980s teen movie "The Breakfast Club."

Five kids in an all-day detention hall. Two of them are very NT (the "jock" and the "prom queen"), the third is a persistent troublemaker and "bad" kid but still very NT.

The other two teens (the "nerd" - Anthony Michael Hall's character, and the "basket case" - Ally Sheedy's character) both seem to have Aspie traits to varying degrees. Check out the part where Hall rambles on about science long after everyone else has stopped paying attention, until the "bad" kid suddenly cuts in with "excuse me, what in the world are you talking about over here?" Ally Sheedy's character plays with her food, obsessively collects things in her purse, and doesn't say anything for long periods of time only to cut in with the wrong thing at the wrong time.

All 5 characters are stereotypes and I doubt John Hughes was trying to make any kind of statement or do any kind of accurate portrayal of anything with the movie. But it's interesting that two of the five characters have very Aspie traits.

Apparently my brother looks a lot like the bloke who played that character (whatever his name was), but I can't see it myself..... interesting but irrelevant..... I'll go now then, shall I?

Here are some movies that I find to very aspie.

-Fight Club... The narrator (Edward Norton) analyses every aspect of his boring life projecting who he would want to be and acting it out. He only feels at ease with people emotionaly weak as he is evendough he can't figure out what could be wrong with him. All the agressivity he's able to unleash while he's fighting... I believe writter Chuck Paleniuk to be an Aspie.

-Adaptation... Charlie Kaufman (Nicolas Cage) feels terribly akward with others, puts himself down a lot (feeling he's got to apologise for existing). He gets sudden rushes of inspiration, then freaks out because he's affraid it will make no sense to others. He's always justifying himself, exposing his insecurity to everyone.

My favorite movie of all time. I don't think Brian (the geek played by Anthony Michael Hall) was very Aspie. He was quite comfortable socializing with everyone else and didn't seem to have any problem with the group dynamics (body language, innuendo, etc.). The only traits he showed were somewhat narrow interests (but not obsessive) and being uncomfortable with breaking the rules. Both are well within the "geek NT" stereotype. Allison (played by Ally Sheedy) was more aspie, although the dramatic change in her personality after her beauty makeover suggests her social problems were not neurological.

The one thing I've always wanted to know, though, was the punch line to the joke Bender was telling when he fell through the ceiling.

Millions. British movie that just came out last year. Delightful little boy obsessed with saints.

I definately wouldn't call "Lost in Translation" an aspie movie at all. Not only do I not see a single trait of autism in there, but it's also technically not a film. It's a slide show of Bill Murray and Scarlett Johanson looking board, and hellicopter shots of Tokeyo. It lacked pretty much everything that makes a film a film: plot, character development, characters to even DEVELOP, acting (unless you count staring off into space and looking bored "acting"), conflict, drama, humor, thrills, visuals, style, substance, meaning--you know, entertainment. "Lost in Translation" is the only "film" I ever felt completely robbed me of two hours, not because it was bad, but because it wasn't anything. It was two hours of the camera rolling on aimlessly. Nobody's ever been able to explain to me why they liked it, either, which seriously ticks me off because I can't understand why anyone would like it, and I wish I did because I have a need to understand things. Now, I get why critics love the film--because critics are paid to completely ignore the good points of a film and focus completely on its flaws. "Lost in Translation" doesn't do anything badly because it doesn't do anything at all. It has less of a story than the typical hollywood action movie. Mediocre is an overstatement. Hence, critics love it 'cus, rather than having bad acting, it has NO acting. Then they turn around and give a terrible review for something like "Underworld," completely ignoring the film's incredible visual style and surprisingly-complex plot in favor of calling it a travesty just because a few of the supporting cast members don't turn in outstanding performances.

But the average person? They've never been able to tell me why they liked the movie. They always say one of the following things:

1) "Bill Murray did such a great performance!" Yeah, if you call looking bored a great performance. Dude, you just like him 'cus he's Bill Murray, and Bill Murray's cool without even trying. But it didn't look to me like he put any effort into it, and it didn't look like he was supposed to. That's what his part was: bored. Staring off into space. That's what everyone in the film's part was, both cast and crew: do nothing, or do it so subtley that it might as well be nothing!

2) "You'd have to be in that kind of situation to understand it." Yeah, well I feel like I'm in a foreign country every day. Because of my asperger's, I ALWAYS feel like I speak a different language than everyone else even when everyone around me speaks English. (I guess in that sense "Translation" could SORTA be confused as an aspie movie, but the difference is that these "characters" (and by characters I mean actors) didn't just feel like it--that was their actual situation. It doesn't mean they're autistic, just that they don't speak Japanese.) But anyway, despite that, I couldn't relate to what was going on in the screen because nothing was going on. I relate to characters, not people boredly staring off into space.

3) "It was so anti-hollywood!" Yeah, it was also anti-everything-entertaining. There are plenty of anti-hollywood movies that are extremely entertaining. Look at films that are arguably similar: "Garden State," "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind," "Me and You and Everyone we know." These films have what "Translation" doesn't: entertainment, characters, substance, humor, etc.


Actually, the recent "Me and You and Everyone We Know" is very much an aspie movie. There's a girl obsessed with home decor, a fascinatingly strange (and bizarre) lead woman, and just general weirdness all about. I rented it recently and absolutely adored it.

Last edited by Veresae on 28 Feb 2006, 10:41 pm, edited 1 time in total.

What about Rain Man? I'm not really sure if Raymond was an aspie, but it's perhaps the best movie dealing with autism. Everybody knows that.

I think Napoleon Dynamite was an aspie.

Yeah I've thought about "lost in translations" and I think it is the concept that seems aspie to me.
The characters are not. But I feel like a lot of my communication suffers from this sort of translation break down.

On the topic of why I like the "film". I like it because it is simple and artful, and expresses feeling, and captures a unique perspective or moment of time. I like the idea that a move doesn't necessarily have to do something. If it expresses something that resonates with me then I feel it has served its purpose.


Maybe someone already mentiond this (maybe even me), but I have really started to think of "Magnolia" as a very aspie film.

Many times as a teenager and even before, I just wanted to be let alone to be myself. My family were obsessed with the idea of everything "looking right." If I ever failed at anything I attempted, there was hell to pay. I can remember something I wanted to be involved with, not even sure what, but they didn't let me in. The result was my parents were furious with me for not trying hard enough, not being good enough, etc. to get in. Another time I competed for something, I didn't get first and again, hell to pay. What I learned from these experiences was never to take chances, never to try, because if you don't make it or don't make first, you're going to pay for the rest of your life. My parents kept score on everything I ever did. Nobody else I my family was ever turned down for anything in their lives and were always first, they couldn't deal with my not being that way. So basically, I learned to hide in my shell just to keep them off my back, which didn't work well sad to say.

There were alot of things in live I wanted to at least take a chance at, not caring if I was first or last, just that I was there and made the effort, but if I were turned down or not first, they'd have never forgiven me. There are things that happened back then, well over 20 years ago, they never forgave. It's my belief now you only find out if you like/dislike something or are good/bad at it is to try it and if you fail or don't like it, try something else. I could have tried it then, but the risk of having the few things that gave me comfort taken away, which my failures would resulted in.

For 4 years of my childhood, between ages 11-14, my parents tried forcing me to focus solely on swimming, often denying any and every activity and forcing swimming on me day in and day out. They'd even say things like "You'll make a great swimmer because..." and give me some trait I had that they thought made a great swimmer and totally belittled any quality, thought, etc., I had that wasn't swimming related. I still remember thinking of how I was going to kill myself if I didn't make a high school swim team, not because I cared, because I knew my parents would torture me forever for such a thing. My sister got cut from the team and my parents decided to send me to a different high school that didn't have a swim team, God was looking out for me for once.

As they've never forgiven me for every little thing, I never forgave them or my brother who is responsible for getting them started on their "PrisonerSix must swim to the exclusion of all else" fixation for doing all those things to me. They still live in denial of how much I loved swimming and how I could swim before I could walk(I didn't learn to swim until I was 13 and only because my parents promised me a release from swimming if I did learn, a promise they never kept.) My one attempt to get out of it, throwing myself down a flight of stairs hoping to break some bones, didn't work and all I did was end up sore for a few days.

I guess we all just want to live and be ourselves, but we are continually persecuted for it. That needs to end.

The Aspie as hero "Three Days of The Condor". A quite guy who reads for a living puts too many facts together.Everyone turns against him.Then he uses all the "useless " knoweldge he
has acummulated to survive.

high fidelity?

Ooops, I must of overlooked this thread, but I already started a new topic on my favorite Aspie movie "Kes" http://www.filmref.com/directors/dirpages/loach.html The word Aspergers is not mentioned, because it was produced way back in 1969 but the kid who plays a lead character who shows every aspie trait and behaviour imaginable.

MATW is still playing in one theater in Spokane, WA. It came out on April 14th and lasted two weeks in five theaters. One of those five will keep it going at least through May 13th. The studio is not expanding the release at this point. It wanted a better response but I am not sure what will be the eventual decision.

I hear MATW will get a theater release in Norway in September. That is the home nation of director, Petter Naess. I think it will do better in Europe than the USA.

Jerry Newport aka The Whale

I agree 100% about Eternal Sunshine. I could totally relate to Joel, and the scene at the beginning where they meet on the train and when they're in his apartment had such an awkward feel to it it was actually kind of comforting. This could be because of a personality quirk in the characters, or possibly because we later find out that *spoilers* they have already met and this is after the memory erasure.

I also mention A Beautiful Mind. The main character clearly has a form of schizophrenia, but he also displays some severe autistic traits.

Ok, so now I know it won't come to Colombia... like "supersize me" I've been looking for it and I can't find it...