MUSIC: Uninsightful at best, irresponsible at worst.

Rob Ryan

To address the elephant in the room right up front, as someone who has been on the Autistic spectrum for my entire life, (albeit high functioning on the spectrum compared to a lot of people) I don’t think there was any way that Sia could've portrayed Autism in a way that reflects everyone’s lived experience. I’ve been friends with some other people on the spectrum, some of them high and can pass very well as neurotypical, others being so low that communication is often minimal. It’s a very broad and fluid disorder that can affect people in very different ways depending on how high or how low you are on the spectrum. Which in part could explain cinema’s rocky portrayal of the disorder throughout history as it’s so broad that it’s no wonder neurotypical people often have a hard time understanding them.

However, I am having a hard time understanding how a neurotypical person who has minimal knowledge of the disorder is supposed to learn anything new about Autism or leave the film with a better understanding of how Autistic people should be treated. For all they know from what the film tells them, their understanding of an autistic person is someone who has no agency over themselves, has random outbursts that come out of nowhere, makes weird and funny faces, hums constantly while occasionally wailing loudly enough for random onlookers to look in disgust and someone whose mind is full of colourful tacky sets and well-choreographed dance sequences that give you less insight about the condition then the description I’ve just given you.

The film opens with the title character (Maddie Ziegler) waking up in her apartment, not before the film’s first flashy music video featuring saturated yellow on the sets and costumes. (presumably meant to represent the early morning sunshine?) Her grandmother (Mary Kay Place) serves her fried eggs with a tomato ketchup smile every day for breakfast as part of Music’s daily routine that she keeps in a book. This schedule leads to Music’s daily walk across the neighbourhood where neighbours and onlookers acquainted with the grandmother make sure she doesn't hurt herself. Whilst out, The Grandmother collapses on the floor and without explanation of the cause, dies instantly. It takes a while for Music to react in any way to her corpse on the floor when she gets home, luckily a trusty neighbour George (Hector Elizondo) comes to her aid and calls an ambulance.

The closest to a family member she has left is her half-sister, Zu (Kate Hudson) a drug dealer who can’t help not staying out of trouble. She hasn’t seen her since she was younger but reluctantly accepts to care for her after reading the grandmother’s will. While at first, she struggles to keep Music under control and adapt to her new life, she meets another trusty neighbour Ebo (Leslie Odom Jr) who helps restrain Music from her meltdown by picking her up and tackling her to the ground. I’ve just done a quick google search on the National Autistic Society to see if that’s a recommended practise to deal with meltdowns. Not only there is no mention of tackling, but the site explicitly states that the best practice is to give them space, tell onlookers to move on and let them deal with their emotions in a quiet safe space. A neurotypical person may not learn anything about the disorder but at least they’ll learn that the only solution to a meltdown is to tackle them to the ground until no one’s looking, AWESOME 👍

Zu becomes friendly with Ebo and as he helps her take care of Music and teachers her every detail of her daily schedule. Things look good and the film wastes no time making explicitly obvious that romance between the two characters is about to blossom. But Zu soon finds herself on thin ice trying to stay sober and paying off her many debts while also keeping Music under control. Ebo who runs his very own gym is also dealing with a personal issue, something that the film forgets about after it’s mentioned.

Same goes for The Grandmother who is completely forgotten about after her death, not only does Zu act Apathetic towards the situation but Music is given no opportunity to grieve for her and is immediately back to her quirky self, if Sia wanted to have a meaningful portrayal of Autism and giving the audience a better understanding of Autistic people, a moment like that would have been more welcomed as it would convey that they are not completely incapable of feeling immense sadness when a loved one passes the same way as a neurotypical person would, even if it’s conveyed differently but it’s one of many missed opportunities that are present throughout the entire film.

When the movie isn’t irresponsible with its portrayal of Autism the movie is a heavily romanticized look at drug addiction, staying sober and the poverty side of L.A (?). Nothing about this section of the film rings true. This isn’t helped by the woefully underdeveloped or unlikeable characters. Kate Hudson’s Zu is no exception as she is constantly getting herself in trouble with dealers, always stealing other people’s property and puts Music in situations that make her come across as a burden to her end goals. This wouldn’t be bad enough if we were given insight into why Zu is put in the position she has found herself in, why do people like her resort to drug dealing? Was she always this reckless? The movie never goes any depth beyond this and even her recovery path of staying sober and getting a job is dealt with too quickly and too easily. As if dealing with these things is as easy as pie. We do get a romantic comedy esc conclusion to Zu and Ebo’s romance though so there’s that.

The closest thing to an interesting subplot in the entire film involves a neighbour across the street named Felix (Beto Calvillo) who is one of the onlooker’s during Music’s daily walks and a regular attendee at Ebo’s gym. The character never speaks and is socially closed off and his father places constant pressure on him to be a strong fighter. It’s also implied that the character has feelings for Music, probably due to her willingness to express herself how she wants without fear of what others think. This would be interesting if it was an entire film by itself, unfortunately much like it’s characters, its barley developed, and the film’s cheesy execution (especially in its conclusion) doesn't help.

All of this would be bad enough without the film’s jarring use of musical numbers which appear at random moments of the film with no build-up whatsoever. When we think of musical numbers and what they offer to the narrative, they usually teach us something about the characters, move the story forward, all while conveying the appropriate emotions needed, not here. These numbers stop the narrative dead in its tracks, all while communicating nothing insightful about Autism or the emotions of the characters. This isn’t helped by them being incredibly overlong and the music accompanying them co-produced and written by Sia being one of her more forgettable efforts, this is coming from someone who has enjoyed some of her music over the years. I don’t see how portraying autistic person’s mindset as an alien world does anything to make neurotypical people understand them better, considering I myself felt confused at what the point of it all was. Sure, there’s some cool flashy sets and costumes that are nice to look at, but so what?

There is no doubt that Maddie Zigler is a very exceptional dancer, and she is trying her best despite what the lacklustre screenplay and direction can offer, but there’s only so much one can tolerate her quirks to a point where it leans far too heavily into a caricature. It isn’t helped that Music herself isn’t a very defined character, this is not only due to the film’s inability to give her more variations in personality but any attempt to develop the character further is side-lined by Zu’s storyline. Why is she called Music in the first place? what does the music in her headphone’s offer to her neurological development? What music does she listen to? How is she impacted from being both poor and Autistic by the American healthcare system? How does she feel about her new family? The movie doesn't seem interested in answering any of these questions. There's this conversation happening on whether or not a neurotypical actor can play an Autistic person, while I'm not 100% against neurotypical actors playing autistic people, I do think that the representation of Autistic actors can provide some much-needed nuance that is severely lacking in this film and many other examples.

I don’t think Sia herself had malicious intent with this film but even without it’s wearisome and outdated understanding of the condition as described; the movie is all flash and no substance. As a look into American poverty, better films have explored this more truthfully, as a musical, it’s both sloppy and purposeless, as a look at Autism, the film is less in-depth than Rain Man. There’s an increasing awareness of the topic from across the globe and that’s very inspiring to see. But the representation of the topic still has a long way to go, and if ever someone makes a list of positive examples in the future, I highly doubt that Music is ever gonna be high on that list.

Rating: 1.5/5

Music is available to watch on VOD now.