Temple Grandin and Adam

Films take varied look at autism

CLAIRE DANES plays "Temple Grandin."

ROSE BYRNE and Hugh Darcy in "Adam."

Two outstanding films out recently deal with autism

The films are worlds apart, but both show how people with this condition can bring their unique perspectives out and benefit mankind.

HBO recently released ’Temple Grandin,’ a wonderful biographical film about Temple Grandin, who grew up autistic but was able to battle her problems and revolutionize how cattle are handled up until the moment they are slaughtered.

Claire Danes is outstanding in a performance that could appear limiting to a lesser actress.

Temple grew up in a the 1960s, when doctors thought autism grew from a lack of nurturing during a critical time in a child’s life. Doctors wanted Temple institutionalized, but her mother was determined she live as normal of a life as possible.

She went to a normal high school where a teacher, played by David Strathaim, saw something special in her.

Temple could not stand to be touched, but needed the feeling of being touched. She built a contraption, a hugging device if you will, she would crawl into and give herself a hug as a way to settle down.

After a rocky time in college, she got interested in cattle and how they are treated. With her unique perspective, she could tell when the animals were mooing louder or softer, when they seemed calm and disturbed. She figured out when workers left jackets along the fence the cattle traveled around, they became nervous.

She designed and had built a more humane slaughter house, designed in a way to keep the cattle calmer, with circular walkways and steps down to the watery dip, rather than a cement slope.

This film is a true marvel. It goes into subjects I for one knew nothing about. It was educating, it was compelling.

’Adam’ is another story dealing with autism and involves yet another outstanding piece of acting, this time by Hugh Dancy. Dancy plays Adam Raki, who lived with his rich father in an apartment complex. Adam’s dad got him a job engineering the manufacturing of toys.

Adam has Asperger’s Syndrome, a functional form of autism.

A pretty young tenant moves next door, Beth, played by Rose Byrne. She is sort of taken by the quiet, clumsy Adam, not realizing at first about his disability. Adam is interested in the planet and stars to the point his discussions with others get definitely one-sided.

When Rose struggles to pull her cart of groceries over the steep steps, Adams is oblivious to her struggles.

Her parents, played by Peter Gallagher and Amy Irving, obviously oppose her getting into a relationship with this man. Adam, on the other hand, needs someone on his side because his father recently died.

It is a very human story that often takes different turns than you might expect. This isn’t your cookie-cutter romance film. It belongs in a league of its own.

Two diverse films about a diverse condition, autism. But both are well worth watching. They will expand your world.

TEMPLE GRANDIN

Directed by Mick Jackson

Teleplay by Christopher Monger and Merritt Johnson

Runtime: 108 minutes

Not rated but good for older children

3 1/2 stars out of 4

ADAM

Directed by Max Mayer

Written by Max Mayer

Runtime: 99 minutes

Rated PG-13 for thematic material, sexual content and language

I Love You, Man

‘I Love You, Man’ different love story

VIDEO VIPER IN WEEKENDER, Feb. 19, 2010

JASON SEGEL (left) and Paul Rudd in "I Love You, Man."

“I Love You, Man” is a love story of sorts involving a soon-to-be married man and another guy.

But there’s nothing gay or bisexual about the main character in this funny and well-done comedy.

Paul Rudd plays Peter Klaven, a romantic, sensitive guy. He’s everything a girl could want. He makes all of the right moves, on his knee, asking girlfriend Zooey (played by Rashida Jones) to marry him. She says yes.

Ah, but there must be a conflict or there’s no real storyline, right?

Zooey has a gaggle of girlfriends she spends time with and tells them the most intimate details of her time with Peter. There’s plenty of girls’ nights with lots of laughing and bonding.

Rudd’s character, however, has no guy friends, thus comes the conflict.

He’s not a bad guy but he just can’t relate to guys and sports. His father, hilariously played by J. K. Simons, who was Juno’s father as well, discusses at the dinner table who his best friends are and flat out says his son has no male friends.

Mom, played by an aging Jane Curtain, readily agrees.

Well, the bride can’t have a half-dozen or so bridesmaids, while there are no groomsmen.

This begins the somewhat painful process of finding a male friend. The film does use a familiar formula taken from many romantic comedies. He searches for the right person but nobody clicks. He gives up.

Ah, then he meets someone, played by Jason Segel. The two people meet, click, spend time together, have fun, get to know each other, relate, break up and by the end of the movie, make amends.

Segel really makes this movie. He’s happy-go-lucky and knows human nature.

Segel plays Sydney Fife who spends his leisure hours making the rounds of real estate open houses, checking out the food.

Rudd plays a real estate agent in a big office. His choice client happens to be Lou Ferrigno, TV’s “Incredible Hulk,” who is selling his luxury home.

It’s at the Hulk home that the pair meet, hit it off and go out for drinks later.

“I Love You, Man” is a love story of sorts involving a soon-to-be married man and another guy.

But there’s nothing gay or bisexual about the main character in this funny and well-done comedy.

Paul Rudd plays Peter Klaven, a romantic, sensitive guy. He’s everything a girl could want. He makes all of the right moves, on his knee, asking girlfriend Zooey (played by Rashida Jones) to marry him. She says yes.

Ah, but there must be a conflict or there’s no real storyline, right?

Zooey has a gaggle of girlfriends she spends time with and tells them the most intimate details of her time with Peter. There’s plenty of girls’ nights with lots of laughing and bonding.

Rudd’s character, however, has no guy friends, thus comes the conflict.

He’s not a bad guy but he just can’t relate to guys and sports. His father, hilariously played by J. K. Simons, who was Juno’s father as well, discusses at the dinner table who his best friends are and flat out says his son has no male friends.

Mom, played by an aging Jane Curtain, readily agrees.

Well, the bride can’t have a half-dozen or so bridesmaids, while there are no groomsmen.

This begins the somewhat painful process of finding a male friend. The film does use a familiar formula taken from many romantic comedies. He searches for the right person but nobody clicks. He gives up.

Ah, then he meets someone, played by Jason Segel. The two people meet, click, spend time together, have fun, get to know each other, relate, break up and by the end of the movie, make amends.

Segel really makes this movie. He’s happy-go-lucky and knows human nature.

Segel plays Sydney Fife who spends his leisure hours making the rounds of real estate open houses, checking out the food.

Rudd plays a real estate agent in a big office. His choice client happens to be Lou Ferrigno, TV’s “Incredible Hulk,” who is selling his luxury home.

It’s at the Hulk home that the pair meet, hit it off and go out for drinks later.

Fife shows Peter his “man cave,” and the two end up jamming to Rush. They jam to Rush a lot. Enough with “Tom Sawyer.”

Rudd spends time with Segel’s character to the point it infringes on Rudd and Jones’ characters Sunday night HBO time. At first, Rudd is taken back by the idea of foregoing Sunday HBO. After all, he laments, it’s not TV, it’s HBO.

Ferrigno is hilarious as he demands to know what is being done to sell his overpriced home.

The characters in the film are well drawn and while the plot familiar, there are enough variations to keep it interesting.

The cast of characters who end up becoming the groomsmen are a real eclectic bunch and the wedding is a highlight of the film.

The movie casts different lights on the traditional roles of males and females and does it very well.

There are some crude scenes and language, but it is a film that will draw both men and female.

You’ll love it, man

I LOVE YOU, MAN

• Directed by John Hamburg

• Written by Hamburg and Larry Levin (screenplay)

• Runtime: 105 minutes

• Rated R for language, crude sexual references

• 4 stars out of 5

Anthem

It’s not easy to focus on ‘Anthem’

KRISTEN HAHN (left) and Shainee Gabel in "Anthem."

Viper for Feb. 12, 2010

Shainee Gabel and Kristin Hahn have made names for themselves in movie production, but back in 1997, before they knew what they were doing, they quit their day jobs, said goodbye to their boyfriends and hit the cinematic road.

They bought a laptop and a couple of video cameras and took off across the country, ready to talk to people and get the pulse of the country.

Unfortunately, the two were technically inept and lacked basic journalistic skills.

They used what appears to be consumer-grade 1997 video equipment, probably VHS or 8 mm video. They didn’t know you shouldn’t place a person in front of the sun and shoot, because if you do, you end up with a silhouette.

Even though they used two cameras, it was choppy, difficult to see and murky.

In fact, after spending more than two hours with these 26-year-olds, I would be hard-pressed to pick their faces out of a lineup.

They are in the film a lot, ordering endless amount of cheap fast food or lounging in their motel rooms.

It’s just the perpetually unlit, gloomy video made it difficult to see much of anything.

They decide to determine the real America by talking to celebrities, who certainly know more about the world than anyone else, right?

Still, the celebrity interviews are pretty intriguing, although there is no particular structure. The girls seem so happy to get time with Robert Redford or Studs Terkel or Hunter S. Thompson, they just turn the camera on and let the celebs ramble.

But despite the ineptness, the girls do get results and their subjects do offer some insight.

First off, the girls find themselves in the Clinton White House over a weekend, when the first family wasn’t supposed to be there.

They sit down to talk to a bearded George Stephanopoulos, then the White House chief of staff. We see them rambling about the White House, crashing into furniture, expressing their “oh gees” because they made it there.

But as old George starts to tell about how presidents before Clinton withstood criticism, he gets a phone call. It is none other than the president, summoning him. Guess he didn’t go away, after all? End of interview. End of visit to the White House.

The pair is constantly on the phone, setting up interviews.

They record part of a Willie Nelson concert, showing us the faces of upscale middle-aged women as they listen to Willie croon.

Back in his ratty trailer, Nelson rambles on about the country and how much more honest politicians used to be. He noted the term “Honest Abe.”

Later, gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson calls Thomas Jefferson and Franklin Delano Roosevelt demigods.

Robert Redford is interviewed at Sundance. It’s not always easy to understand what he is saying because apparently a wedding was going on at an adjoining property.

Redford talks about growing up before television, when entertainment was primarily movies and radio. He said he was a big reader, especially fantasy stuff. Today, people’s lives are filled with TV, video games and the Internet.

Interesting, but like other interviews, it has little to do with what other interviewees are saying.

Michael Stipe of REM had to postpone his interview because of hernia surgery. He gets almost pornographic as he pulls down his pants to show the scar.

Stipe talks about being picked on as a youngster and wonders why people ask him about worldly things (as he comments on worldly things) because after all, he’s only a rock star.

The girls spend a week riding around with Thompson, but he grimaces when they try to bring the camera out.

The girls also speak with retired Sen. George McGovern, director John Waters and author Studs Terkel. Terkel asks them after the interview if they will drop him off in downtown Chicago. Terkel has never driven, but admires people who can.

The film is too long. It is technically poor. But those girls proved persistent, even though they didn’t appear to know what to do once they got the celebrities.

The celebrities were so interesting, so human, it was worth watching if only to see them as real human beings.

(McGovern wants to talk politics but only after calling his wife.)

Maybe you have to be in the right mood, but I found “Anthem” intriguing and fun. It also gives you a glimpse of America a decade ago. We see gasoline stations with fuel prices at $118.9 per gallon.

Maybe this film will spark future filmmakers to buy today’s cheaper, better and smaller cameras and find out what celebrities think today.

How would Miley Cyrus educate us on life today?

ANTHEM

• Directed and written by Shainee Gabel and Kristin Han

• Runtime: 124 minutes

• Not rated. OK for kids, but they won’t want to see it

• 3 stars out of 5

Funny Games

Beware! Stay away from ‘Funny Games’

VIDEO VIPER for Feb. 5, 2010

Michael Pitt and Brady Corbet are sickos who terrorize families in "Funny Games."

This review may be a bit different than usual because the movie is a bit different.

That’s not in a good way.

“Funny Games” is indeed about a game, but there’s nothing funny in this film.

Well, it might be funny to someone who pulls wings off flies and tortures small animals. It might be funny to serial killer-wannabes too.

Spoiler alert: The film is so violent with no redeeming qualities, I’ll give away more of the plot than usual to illustrate the point and dissuade you from renting or (gasp) buying it.

You have to be a special kind of person to like this movie and if you do, I hope you don’t live in my neighborhood.

Cute Naomi Watts, who won everyone’s heart in “King Kong,” allows herself to be debased in this sad, sick film.

Watts and Tim Farber play a wealthy couple with a summer home on Long Island. They and son (Devon Gearhart) ready for summer vacation. They notice their vacation neighbors seem a bit uneasy and have two guests, Paul and Peter, played by Michael Pitt and Brady Corbet.

The pair end up at the Watts-Farber home to supposedly borrow eggs. But this, like everything the pair does, is part of a cruel and violent game.

The two are super polite as they hold the family captive, taunting them. They make Watts’ character strip to her underwear to solve a debate on whether she was getting chunky. (She wasn’t.) She spends much of the rest of the film in her underwear, crying and convulsing.

This is a nearly shot-by-shot remake of a European film director Michael Haneke made a decade earlier.

Haneke also wrote the story. Why anyone would want to relive such a nightmare of a movie using different actors is beyond me.

The two young psycopaths tell the family they doubt if they will live through the next day.

Husband Roth quickly has his legs broken with a golf club. The family dog is murdered and the Watts character must walk around the yard being told she’s “hot” or “cold” as far as finding the body. Eventually, she opens the car door and we see the lifeless dog’s body fall out.

Such entertainment.

The young son escapes and rushes to the neighbors’ house. Aw, but we’ve already figured out the couple there are dead. Yes, the two men kept that family captive before killing them, just as they are doing with Watts and crew.

Paul and Peter, of course, eventually catch up with the young boy, who red-faced and in hysterics, cries uncontrollably as he is brought back.

Out of the blue, the bad boys turn to the camera and speak to the movie goers. This happens maybe twice, like it was an idea the filmmaker wanted to do, but then forgot to execute it much.

So it is more like we are taken back and confused by the procedure.

The Watts character is able to escape for a time, but she is picked back up.

One of the sickest scenes involves the hysterical son, who is shot and killed by a rifle, his blood splattered on the walls and TV for us to see during much of the rest of the movie.

Husband is eventually killed as well, leaving the Watts character to try to save her life.

But here is where the film cheats. Maybe it is supposed to be a social commentary or some sort of satire on America’s love of voilent films. Whatever the point, it was lost on me and the original film didn’t take place in the U.S.

So Watts gets the gun and kills one of the psychos. But the laws of time and physics work for the killers. The death is “rewound,” the killer is suddenly alive again.

So you see, entering this bizarre fantasy state, Watts’ chances of survival are nil.

By this time nobody cares anyway.

The film ends with the boys going to the next house in the resort area to borrow eggs, with Watts’ body at the bottom of the lake.

This film took 111 minutes of my life away. I added the spoilers to convince you to stay away. Keep those 111 minutes, cherish them.

Write some poetry. Read some good literature. Volunteer somewhere during those 111 minutes. Give blood during those 111 minutes.

Just stay the hell away from this film.

FUNNY GAMES

• Directed and written by Michael Haneke

• Runtime: 111 minutes.

• Rated R for terror, violence and some language

• No stars out of 5