I'm interested in seeing Adam now. Also Mozart and the Whale. I haven't seen either yet.

I saw an extended trailer for Adam and I was struck by how much he reminded me of my son - who was 4 years old at the time. So I get that the movie infantilizes autism.

I've seen Rain Man. I've also seen "The Hangover" 1 and 2, where one of the characters is clearly supposed to be autistic.

By far the worst movie about an autistic person is "Bad Boy Bubby" - I saw that years ago but realized much later that Bubby was autistic (I read a little about the film after that and found out that the lead actor got into character by hanging out with autistic adults). He kills his cat with cling wrap... then his parents... then his girlfriend's parents...

The best movie I've seen about an adult with autism was "Malcolm", a 1986 Australian film. I doubt, though, if the people who made the film were actually aware of autism.

I love that movie. Autism never even crossed my mind. I thought his issues were caused by the fact that he was never allowed to leave the apartment and his mother's constant abuse. I'll have to rewatch it.

Bubby does a LOT of echolalia, I suspect that is a trait that the lead actor picked up on from hanging out with autistic adults. But obviously the abuse didn't help.

Funny thing about Bad Boy Bubby was that I first hired it out from a video shop in Adelaide about 14 years ago, maybe a bit longer. The girl at the video shop said "I love that movie, you know they made it just up the road". We were right near Port Adelaide... I didn't realize until I watched it that the movie was literally made 200 or 300 metres away. And yes, that part of Adelaide is really like that.

I do love the movie as well - by "worst movie about autism" I meant the most negative portrayal of autism. Around that time a girl at work sent around an email saying that something was near "Bad Boy 142857's desk". I asked her why she called me that... she said that she originally wrote "Bad Boy Bubby's desk" but realized that some people might not know what she was talking about. If she hadn't been such a nice girl I might have taken that the wrong way. :/

Being an ignorant Yank, I've never heard of "Bad Boy Bubby" before, but it sounds like it has potential to be my favorite movie of all time because I'm an atheist with elaborate familial revenge fantasies.

Does anyone else think Brennan and Dale from "Step Brothers" (Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly's characters) are developmentally disabled? I do (there really can't be any other explanation for their unusual and undesirable behaviors and proclivities), and I despise that movie because everything is played for laughs.

I haven't seen any of these movies, but Rain Man is always mentioned whenever the word "autistic" is said in here in the uk, which is really annoying because everyone seems to think that is what hfa's are all like.

i want a movie where there is proper portrayal of aspergers. Sod it, even have more than one aspie character in the film so people actually get the idea that we aren't all the same. Sorry for the tangent but my biggest pet hate is the stereotype being flashed around constantly on telly in soaps and movies. Yeah some might fit a bit of the stereotype, but not everyone.

I'd like a movie about Aspie women, that isn't based on some NT idealized romantic story. Yes, I know Mozart & the Whale is true, but it's rather stereotypical in the way Aspie women are. Like, "Oh they're female, well they MUST want to fall in love, and be in a relationship!" i'dmlike to see a spy movie with an Aspie female spy, or a movie where an Aspie female is kicking butt.

Yes!! That's I want I want to see! I would also like to see some comedy, but obviously not the type that trashes aspergers - a witty comedy, perhaps with cast of aspie/hfa characters rather than just one character, that shows positivity towards aspergers/autism but at the same time being realistic about the obstacles we face eg getting jobs, a love life, being understood ect.

Adam: I found ok, apart from the ending.
Mozart and the Whale: the book's much more interesting (and depressing: rape etc.)

I'd recommend:
The black balloon (from Australia, the director has 2 brothers on the spectrum)
Snow Cake (with Alan Rickman !!!)
(both about auties; I'm a bit biased there)

Disclosure; I have removed one post from this thread.

I've heard good things about Big Bang Theory.

I've seen a little of big bang theory, not much, probably around a few minutes but I have noticed the characters are quite "aspie"! I'll watch it sometime as I've heard good things and I thought the few mins that I watched it were amusing.

Jack and I saw Mozart and the Whale and while it's more positive than a LOT of other stuff, Jack and I both agreed it was full of stereotypes.


Now I want to watch Adam just so I can get angry.


Another good one (or is it all good about AS? I dunno) is Mary and Max. It's such cute and sweet satire. I cried at the end.

I started to watch Big Bang Theory because of all I had heard about it but, when they went to commercial, I started to channel surf to see what else was on.  I found a PBS documentary about wolves and forgot to go back to the comedy. I really like wolves. : )

I haven't bothered even trying to watch Adam because I know everything about it will just piss me off. I haven't met a single Aspergian who behaves as the general media portrays us. I've met people who are closer to the textbook definition than others, but they still have a personality and movies like Adam make us out to be characterless and wooden, which is completely untrue.

Bearing in mind it's impossible to generalise Autists... at the special school I used to go to, there were 5 Autists in the class including me, and we're all rather different. So, if you watch a film, remember that the Aspie character may be based on a real person, while you think that they're based on a stereotyped version.

For example, would you expect Aspies to follow people round like puppies and do whatever they say, almost like Lenny and George? Yet that's just what one guy in the class is/was like.