Autism stories

Autism: the Musical is a well done film about autism, both about the children who have the condition and the parents who deal with it every day. My wife works in special education and was pleased by the comprehensive picture it presented of the challenges faced both by the kids and their parents, with the latter sometimes finding that their marriages simply can't survive those challenges.

Myself, I was a little disappointed that there wasn't more of "the musical" in a movie called Autism: The Musical. The musical is built up over the course of the movie with frequent title cards that say things like "three weeks before the performance", "two weeks before the performance", etc., yet when we get to the actual musical production performed by the autistic kids, it's just another seven-or-eight-minute vignette among a film comprised of seven-or-eight-minute vignettes. But that's more of a criticism based on the expectations created by the film's title, rather than a criticism of the film itself.

Autism: The Musical, which we rented via Netflix, looks and sounds great on DVD, and there are a variety of interesting extra features, mostly involving additional scenes of the kids.