Review: Music (2021)

5/100

I don't think we have to be autistic to recognize that autism is a largely under and misrepresented condition in the media. There are generally two chambers: misrepresentation of autism as a disease, and misrepresentation of autism as a... trademark autism. And I think you know what I mean. These are highly-skilled but socially-weird people who don't have facial expression and has an annoying way of talking. With the many films every year showing autism, we have become largely unscathed, though still annoyed, with it.

In 2021, one of those films hit IMAX cinemas. Music, a, well, musical dramedy about the titular autistic character whose parents gave her a very lazy name. I'm sure I don't need to encapsulate the synopsis like other feature reviews. There are just too many synopses on the Internet, I'm sure 90% of readers here come here after reading about it. And Music is something that well represents how shit we are viewed by society, but I think the problem with it goes layers deep. And it's largely undiscovered by people.

To understand Music, we have to go back to the early days of the increasing awareness of autism. It really began with the founding of Autism Speaks, an organization intended to increase autism acceptance. However, its reputation has worsened and worsened, making them the most controversial autism org. It really blew up with their 2009 PSA I Am Autism, which depicts autistic people as destructive, but don't worry y'all, because the love of family can repent the demon. It's literally edited like a Dogme 95 horror flick.

However, the problem also stems from the older days of autism. A time when witchcraft is a keyword to the condition, with the blatant assumption that autistic children (not adults, for some reason) are a byproduct of the devil. Although those beliefs are not that vocally-expressed nowadays, the effects are still seen: as depicted in The Reason I Jump (2020), some people still believe autistic people are possessed by the devil and thus worthless. The social stigma regarding autistic people, and even just the word "autism" itself, is still big, and despite good intentions, the autistic archetype in media just worsens this stigma, limiting the spectrum to just a speck.

Had I not been autistic or educated on autism, Music would make me convinced that autistic people are horrifying. In fact, I don't know if writer-director (and singer-songwriter) Sia even cared about her autistic character, because I'm unable to feel her presence in the film. There were only minutes out of the hour of runtime where I felt as though Music is being highlighted or is having any kind of plot. A large portion of the film isn't even about Music, with her mostly being the personification of a fade-to transition. And that hurts, it really does. During her "three years of research", Sia still does not understand that autistic people are... well, people. We are not a godsent object for you to progress, we are just people that deserve understanding amongst other people.

I'm not going to talk about the restraint scenes or the other accusations in the film. It's been too much coverage and I feel like it's serving no purpose in this review. But what I want to highlight is how Sia just doesn't highlight anything. I don't know what this film's about. It feels as if a porn video wants to include people of all sexualities (and I'm saying that as a bisexual who appreciates the diversity in Heartstopper). But Music tries to be everything, that its plot becomes nothing. I'm forced to deal with a bunch of shit for over an hour: autism, addiction recovery, HIV, poverty, fat-shaming, infidelity... I might've missed more. The film's way too marketed as an autism film, and when I watched it, I'm overwhelmed by the many information. But I think the reason it's marketed as such is because Music is integral to the progression of the story, and because that's her sole purpose, it offends me. The people around her are just using her, but the film condones it.

It is a disgrace to all the underground auteurs to call this film experimental, despite being technically true: to show the world Music sees, music videos are thrown throughout the film. In principle, this is a good idea for Sia: use her musical background to provide a whole new sense of cinema. But upon examination, I find that this is no more than a redundant attempt to make a soundtrack album. As many have noted, take the numbers out and you won't feel any changes to the film. They feel disconnected from the film's tone, which is probably thematically correct as Music also feels disconnected from her world, but this is never how you do symbolism. You don't need film school to teach you that if you want to make a musical, you better make it useful in some way to the film.

Instead, Music comes across as nothing more than a greedy attempt to increase a celebrity's already famous fame, a vanity project rooted in nepotism, an ableist story, and a film nobody asked for and needed. The fact that Sia made it just to be able to cast surrogate daughter Maddie Ziegler (who isn't autistic) as Music makes me confused on why they didn't market the film as such; had they did, I would've set my bar lower and went, "That's a good attempt." But with this high of a bar, I don't know what Music means. What purpose does it truly serve? You can't just make a film with your intention being to give your daughter some kind of role; there's something deeper, but I refuse to believe it's an attempt to make an autism film.

I got slightly tearful seeing the film it could've been. It could've been wholly better with just a bit of tweak. The shot above this review is my favorite shot of the film. So, don't get me wrong, I like several aspects of the film. I love how Sia can transition through this naturally, and how the music is not jarring, with silences in the poignant and heavy scenes. I love the cast and how they can make the mediocre script a bit more enjoyable. The cinematography is the best of the film, providing a sense of narrowness yet also expansiveness and profoundness... even if the plot never touches that level.

When Sia gave herself a cameo and said "Popstars without borders", I wisely nodded. To some of my autistic folks, that's sarcasm, for I am sad.

Music is streaming on VOD services.