https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7541720
https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/music

So, the Golden Globe nominations came out today, and this was nominated for Best Picture and Actress. Of course, no one in the real world has seen it yet.

I don't want to turn this into a political debate, but there was a brouhaha about Sia using Ziegler, who is not autistic, to play an autistic character. I must have a ways to go in my journey to wokeness because I think that is a load of crap.

No way for me to know if this movie is good or bad, but just the fact that it was attacked sight unseen has me on its side for now.

I am confused though, since it says this stars Kate Hudson, but that is clearly Lucas Black in the trailer.

The attacks on casting are dumb (seriously dumb), but it just doesn't look good. And the whole "she's happy on the inside" just seems weird here

Black looks pretty good in a dress though, so kudos to him pulling that off.

I obviously know nothing about this movie but Ziegler’s character looks autistic in the “real life” parts of the movies but does not look autistic in the fantasy dance numbers. I’m not sure how you’re supposed to pull that off if you’re using an actual autistic person.

Of course, just from the trailer, I’m not sure I buy that performance resembling someone on the autism spectrum either. She looks more like she went more for a highly intellectually disabled person.

I think it really looks bad. Wonder if the producers showered the HFPA with gifts or something. And how bad must these 10 Sia songs be in a movie they deem worthy of a Best Musical or Comedy nomination to not get a single nod for Best Original Song in a year where nobody has heard any of these songs on the radio or a Spotify playlist?

It’s like how Glee was criticized got casting a non-wheelchair person, but he also had non-wheelchair fantasy dance numbers (which could’ve been created to deflect criticism—who knows).

But this isn’t new. Inappropriate casting has been criticized for decades.

This song was probably not in the soundtrack

I know it only has 7 reviews at this moment, but it's currently sitting at 29% on RT.

I liked the little blurb on deadline.com: "Our chief film critic Pete Hammond’s verdict was this: “The film was privately shown to me in early December in hopes I would interview Sia and say nice things about her movie; I politely declined after seeing it, finding it lacking in just about every area.”"

Finally watched this on Prime today. Holy Shit. I actually would have enjoyed a movie with just Hudson and Odom Jr. exploring their deeply damaged character backgrounds. Everything else is so ham-fisted and the worst caricature of people with special needs you could imagine. Out of curiosity, my partner and I looked at the social media accounts of SIA, Maddie Ziegler (who plays the special needs title character), and Leslie Odom Jr. Essentially every trace of this is gone; SIA still has posts building up to the release, but post release, crickets. When we talk about cancel culture, I honestly think had we still not been in a pandemic and a month removed from Jan. 6th, this would have ended SIA's career. In all honesty it should, because some of the stuff she puts forward in the film is outright cruel mockery despised as melodrama.