in your opinion what are some good movies/books/series that portray autistic people accurately?
- Abed from Community (series). Incredibly fun and relatable character from my all-time favorite series. I don’t know any autistic people who doesn’t love Abed. I wrote a long post about him here and his autistic creator here.
- Billy from Power Rangers 2017 (movie). Probably the most accurate and least stereotypical portrayal I’ve seen. Great movie in general. I wrote a post about him here.
- Max from Mary & Max (movie). They poke a bit too much fun of him, but the movie is saved by having a really wonderful anti-cure message about accepting people instead of changing them. I love that message so much, it’s probably my all-time favorite movie because of this. The ending is incredible too. I wrote a post about the movie here.
- Adam from… well, Adam (movie). He’s a bit stereotypical at times, there was one joke that got close to offensive. That said, I like Adam’s relationship with his girlfriend and the movie has one of the best endings I’ve seen, it’s touching and gives Adam some real character development.
- Ben from Ben X (movie). This is a movie about bullying, ableism and suicide. It’s really depressing and hard to stomach, but it’s very important to have movies like this that doesn’t sugar-coat anything. My complaint is that the movie makes him look a bit more schizophrenic than autistic at times. I’m not saying that as an insult, he could be both and that would be cool, but the movie only diagnoses him with autism which could confuse a neurotypical audience. I’d like to write more about this movie some day, I have a lot of thoughts about it.
- Oskar from Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close (movie). This movie is surprisingly down-to-earth and I like that. In the end, it’s really just a slice of life story about an autistic kid casually stepping out of his comfort zone. I can also relate to Oskar’s relationship with his mom, it feels very real. On a side note, I’ve seen a ton of neurotypicals calling Oskar obnoxious and that just makes me like him even more. I love seeing ableists get upset over autism positivity.
- Symmetra from Overwatch (game). The game / comics are very subtle about her autism, but I like that. It’s really refreshing to have an autistic character without constantly being reminded that they’re awkward. Symmetra is just a badass lady who happens to be autistic. Oh, and she’s the first playable autistic video game character!
- Josh from Watch_Dogs 2 (game). He’s a bit stereotypical too, but I like how his backstory (explained in an audio log) touches on ableism. There is also a DLC mission that focuses on Josh where he gets some nice development and even mentions that he wouldn’t want a cure for autism, which is awesome.
- River from To the Moon (game). An incredibly touching game with two well-written autistic women that really shows how differently the condition affects people. The creators clearly knows a lot about autism (if they aren’t autistic themselves) and even donated money to ASAN. I wrote a post about the game here.
Stereotypical portrayals that I still kind of like:
- Saga from Broen (danish/swedish series). She acts very robotic and insensitive to the point where it gets eye-rolling at times. That said, she gets less stereotypical as the series goes on and we learn more about her troubled backstory. It’s hard not to enjoy seeing a badass autistic character like her, even if she’s stereotypical. Also, Saga has sex all the freakin’ time which is very unusual for autistic characters. I like that, it’s cool to see a sexually active autistic character. The series in general is very good and calls out Scandinavia for all our flaws as a society. There is an american version where the character is autistic too, I hear it’s decent but I haven’t watched it yet.
- Wolff from The Accountant (movie). Yes, he’s super stereotypical, but like Saga I just find it hard not to get happy when I see badass autistic characters kicking ass. He does have some symptoms that I find relatable too, like how frustrated he gets when he has to leave a task before finishing it. I also like his relationship with his brother a lot. I just can’t dislike a movie that celebrates autism like this, even if the character is like a walking wikipedia article about the condition.
A headcanon that I’d like to mention:
- Wilson Fisk from Daredevil (series). I usually don’t headcanon characters, but Wilson Fisk is one of the most clearly autistic characters I’ve ever seen. I find a lot of his mannerisms intensely relatable. The way he struggles to talk to people, yet changes tone completely around the ones he feels comfortable with. The way he has the exact same repetitive routine each morning. His intelligent and logical but admittedly black-and-white worldview. His meltdowns and the way he visibly tries to control himself before they happen. I can’t relate to his violent actions at all (obviously not, most autistic people are very peaceful) but I think the show makes it clear that his violence is a leftover from his crappy childhood, not any kind of mental illness. It’s important to note that the actor playing him (Vincent D’Onofrio) believes he might be autistic in real life, so it’s very possible that he intentionally carried that into the character. I’d like to write a lot more about this character when season 3 arrives.
On a sidenote, I should really read more books! I have read one book about autism; The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time. I think it’s a pretty decent and touching book, but the actual portrayal of autism leaves a lot to be desired. I’m going to read On the Edge of Gone soon, that book is actually written by an autistic person and it looks amazing.
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