Well, True Believers, it's February, and that can only mean three things: Valentine's Day (Singles Awareness Day, if we're being politically correct), temperatures cold enough to make penguins angry at life and Oscar season. The good old Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences will be making its decisions soon as to which movies we should love and which actors and actresses we should fawn over.
I would be more OK with this phenomenon if it weren't for the ad campaigns informing me which movies were worthy of the statuettes. As of this writing, going to imdb.com assaults my eyes with trailers and banner ads informing me of the crap-ton of nominations Michael Clayton has received. This of course confuses me, since I gathered from the trailer that Michael Clayton was a movie where Tom Wilkinson was crazy, George Clooney was also potentially crazy and that was it. I never found out because if it was in theaters, I was ignoring it in favor of Sweeney Todd, Juno and No Country For Old Men. I suppose ad campaigns to alert the public are only really necessary when the secret society of AMPAS voters decide the film is worthy. I somehow get the mental image of a DVD of Michael Clayton being initiated into the AMPAS Omega frat, Animal House-style, to prove to Robert Redford that it really is a good film. Thank you
sir may I have another. Seriously.
But all my personal annoyances at the Oscars aside, I've discovered the only surefire way to get noticed at such a prestigious ceremony. Y'know, aside from wearing a dress whose front is slit down a good ways into your happy trail ' No, this reporter has not forgotten, Ms. Lopez. You must follow in the footsteps of Dustin Hoffman in Rain Man, Sean Penn in I Am Sam, Tom Hanks in Forrest Gump and whoever that guy is who played Kazan in Cube. Er ... OK, maybe just the first three are footstep worthy. But if you noticed the similarities there, kudos; all those characters have some form of mental disorder, and in three of the cases, the disorder is autism. Inquiry: Does the Academy prefer actors who can play disabled characters? Because three of those actors were nominated for Oscars, and two won them ' Sorry, Sean Penn, you can't win them all.
For those of you who are unaware of it, autism is, simply put, extreme social awkwardness. I'm not sure of the medical definition, but going off of my younger brother and sister, it can range from a slight learning disability with a disinclination to talk and be social unless there is something specific you want, to a very energetic, friendly, huggy attitude and a lifelong love of anything Barney the Purple Monstrosity has ever done. There have been more severe cases when the child will do things like refuse to let his mother wear anything other than the one dress she has that is the child's favorite. If she doesn't wear it, there could be a tantrum. And to accurately depict tantrum here, I'm going to use a new phrase: Apostrophe. Half Apocalypse, half Catastrophe. Autism is also related to Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, and there is an entire range of disorders (called the Autism Spectrum Disorders) that fall under the umbrella of autism. For more information, since I'm by no means the best-informed source, please visit www.autism-society.org or www.autismspeaks.org.
But as I do more and more research (which admittedly is fairly contained within Wikipedia), it becomes apparent that autism is becoming a vogue mental disability for the entertainment industry. Tracing its roots back to the 1986 film The Boy Who Could Fly, films about autistic people (Autistic Americans?) did not really hit their stride until 1988. It was a good year for actors who wanted special recognition for playing the pitiable autistic person, when Dustin Hoffman played Raymond in Rain Man (Academy Award-winning role) and Chad Allen ' yes, the Chad Allen ' played Tommy Westphall in the television classic St. Elsewhere. In fact, the entire town, series and characters of St. Elsewhere may have been entirely a construct of Tommy's imagination. Way to go, Tommy. That'll show that pesky Howie Mandel, the sneaky game show man that he is. The trend has continued in film (Mozart and the Whale with Josh Hartnett, Snow Cake with Sigourney Weaver), television (Brady Hauser in season six of 24) and literature (Mark Haddon's The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time), the latter two of which met with much popular acclaim. Snow Cake and Mozart and the Whale were independent films, and I have a theory that America went through a period between Mallrats in 1995 and Little Miss Sunshine in 2006 where they didn't give a rat's patootie about independent film.
But Nick
you may be saying. What does it all mean?
While fighting my internal urge to say 42
I'll spell it out. Those of you who saw No Country For Old Men recall the killer and the actor who portrayed him, Javier Bardem. Now, he's in the running for Best Supporting Actor, but how could he clinch the award? Say that his character was autistic. He wasn't very adept at social interaction; I mean, look what he did to Woody Harrelson! This one's for Natural Born Killers
you clown! It worked for Dustin Hoffman, sir; it could work for you.
And Michael Cera in Juno! Socially awkward, or suffering from an autism spectrum disorder? You be the judge.
I can only hope that this column makes it to the desk of the Academy before it's too late.
Nick Philpott is a freshman creative writing major. To berate him for belittling Chad Allen's acting career, email him at np714907@ohiou.edu.
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