Mozart and The Whale
A love story between two savants with Asperger's syndrome whose social disparities sabotage their budding relationship. This film is based on the story of Jerry and Mary Newport.
I Am Sam
The story of an autistic man living independently and functioning well in the real world until his life changes drastically when he becomes a father and is left to care for his small child.
The Other Sister
A girl with many autistic traits proves herself capable of living independently when she moves into an apartment and starts college.
Mercury Rising
A brilliant 9-year-old autistic boy becomes a target for assassins after he breaks a top government code. An undercover FBI agent finds the boy hiding in his closet and protects him.
Cube
This low-budget science-fiction drama, winner of a 1997 Toronto Film Festival prize for "Best Canadian First Feature," depicts the plight of a group of people clad in prison-style uniforms and trapped in futuristic cube-like metal cells. One of the prisoners is Kazan, an autistic man.
Forest Gump
A best-picture winner presenting a comical view of the American experience from the 1940s to the 1980s as seen through the eyes of a man with some autistic traits.
What's Eating Gilbert Grape?
Gilbert Grape lives in a small town where nothing much happens. The town's most interesting resident is Gilbert's autistic brother Arnie.
Little Man Tate
Fred is a genius with many Aspberger's traits. His mother, Dede is determined to protect Fred from opportunists who wish to exploit his intellect. An interesting insight into the emotions of a child with autistic traits.
Backstreet Dreams
A gangster, with apparent mafia connections, winds up taking care of his autistic son. The child displays many autistic behaviors, such as social withdrawal, does not speak, and rocks. A graduate student decides to help the child as well as help the father leave the mafia.
Change of Habit
Elvis plays a physician who runs a medical clinic in a poor neighborhood. Three nuns are sent to assist Elvis in his medical practice. A parent brings her girl to the clinic for an evaluation and treatment. The girl is diagnosed as having autism because she rocks, does not want to be held, and does not respond to sounds. Elvis treats the girl, and she begins to break out of her autism.
Run Wild, Run Free
Mark Lester (of Oliver fame ), plays Philip Ransome, a northern English boy about 10 years old, who has been mute since age 3. He spends his days roaming the moors alone. His parents despair of a cure. Gradually Philip emerges from his shell. But the way out is full of heartbreak and setbacks.
House of Cards
A bright, young girl withdraws soon after her father is killed by falling off a cliff. She believes that by withdrawing socially and climbing tall structures, she will reunite with her father who she believes is near the moon. She exhibits many autistic characteristics, such as insistence on sameness, good coordination, lack of social interaction, and no language. At the end of the movie, the mother builds a circular tower which is similar to a tower the child built from playing cards. The mother climbs the tower with her daughter, and the girl comes out of her autistic-like state.
Killer Diller
A guitar playing car thief meets an autistic savant piano player, and together they transform a group of reluctant halfway house convicts into The Killer Diller Blues Band
Rain Man
A car dealer returns to his boyhood home soon after learning about his father's death. His father left a large sum of money to a benefactor, who he later discovers is left to his autistic brother, Raymond. Raymond was institutionalized soon after his mother's death because of the fear that he might accidentally hurt his younger brother. Raymond has many autistic features, such as perseverations, insistence on sameness, rocking, self-injury, and savant abilities. Throughout the movie, the car dealer gets to know his brother during a cross-country car trip. (Dr. Rimland was the technical advisor on this movie ).
Silence (also known as Crazy Jack and The Boy)
An autistic child is lost during a camping trip and is befriended by a hermit. The child leaves the hermit's house and is then faced with the dangers of the woods. He is later rescued.
The Pit
Twelve year-old Jamie Benjamin (Sammy Snyder) is a misunderstood lad. His classmates pick on him, his neighbors think he's weird and his parents ignore him. But now Jamie has a secret weapon: deep in the woods he has discovered a deep pit full of man-eating creatures he calls Trogs...and it isn't long before he gets an idea for getting revenge and feeding the Trogs in the process!
The Boy Who Could Fly
A teenager with autism is sent to live with his uncle after his parents die in an airplane crash. The teenager exhibits many features of autism such as social withdrawal, no languge, and stereotypic behaviors. A girl who lives in a house next door befriends the teenager. Initially, she becomes his friend, but later she becomes his tutor. After much one-on-one contact, the teenager becomes more aware of other people and starts to show emotions. Because of his uncle's alcohol problem, the teenager is sent to an institution. At the end of the movie, the teenager flew away to avoid being institutionalized.
Temple Grandin
A biopic of Temple Grandin, an autistic woman who has become one of the top scientists in the humane livestock handling industry.
The Black Balloon
All Thomas wants is a normal adolescence but his autistic brother, Charlie, thwarts his every opportunity. Will Thomas, with the help of his girlfriend, Jackie, accept his brother?
The Wizard
Corey (Fred Savage) kidnaps his autistic younger brother, Jimmy (Luke Edwards), to save him from impending institutionalization. They escape in the back of a twinkie van on their way to California and the chase is on: their father (Beau Bridges) and older brother (Christian Slater) want to bring them home, a bounty hunter is after Jimmy for the fee his mother and stepfather will pay. Along the way, the brothers join forces with Haley (Jenny Lewis), an extremely resourceful girl ("I know truckers - they got a code") on her own after the breakup of her own family. When they discover that Jimmy has an extraordinary talent for video games, they're off to the Nintendo world championship in California. Everything comes to a head at Video Armageddon. Jimmy's autistic symptoms include social withdrawal, limited use of language, obsession with California, repetitive actions.
Little Voice
A girl (Jane Horrocks) withdraws inward following the death of her father into a world they shared - recordings of great artists of the 1940s and 1950s. Her mother (Brenda Blethyn) is an alcoholic, verbally abusive and self-centered, and one evening, brings home new talent-promoter boyfriend (Michael Caine). When the power goes off and they hear LV (Little Voice - "on account of you're so soft-spoken") sing in the voices of the greats, dollar signs flash in their eyes, and they try to capitalize on her gifts. The only person who appreciates the girl behind the voice is Peter, the telephone guy, himself an introvert whose main companions are his homing pigeons. If you can get past the language - the English accents are sometimes hard to understand, also very "blue" at times - this is an excellent film for examining social withdrawal, limited use of language, obsession with old recordings and extraordinary musical abilities of some autists, as well as the tendency for certain opportunists to take advantage of them. The film is best suited for high school students over the age of 17.
Snow Cake
Sigourney Weaver plays an independent autistic woman who helps a guilt-ridden stranger, played by Alan Rickman, come to terms with his issues about love and death. The film received mixed reviews, but Weaver’s performance was praised by many in the autistic community.
My Name is Khan
Rizwan Khan, a Muslim from the Borivali section of Mumbai, suffers from Asperger's syndrome, a form of high-functioning autism that complicates socialization. The adult Rizwan marries a Hindu single mother, Mandira, in San Francisco. After 9/11, Rizwan is detained by authorities at LAX who mistake his disability for suspicious behavior. Following his arrest, he meets Radha, a therapist who helps him deal with his situation and his affliction. Rizwan then begins a journey to meet US President Obama to clear his name.
I'm Jess...wife to Jared...Mama of 4. 3ofmyown+1ofhis=4kids: Amanda (sd) 10, Amethyst 7 (Pdd-Nos), Isaac 6 (Autism and Epilepsy) & Elijah 3. I support Nursing In Public and am anti-vaccines.
More movies:
Relative Fear
Thriller Movie. There's some really frightening moments in the movie, but nothing too bloody. A boy with autism who is fascinated with crime on TV, is suspected as a killer responsible for a series of murders occur in the neighborhood. The end of the movie is surprising.
David's Mother
A mother of an autistic boy saw this movie and said: "This is my life!" The film is highly recommended to parents of children with autism, or other disabled children. There's something that you can learn about and benefit from.
Imagination
Fantasy story. A little twin girl named Anna, who has Asperger's Syndrome and is unable to cope with reality. Their father leaves the family. The sisters cannot face the pain and sink deeper and deeper into their imaginations.
Miracle Run
Mrs. Morgan's twin boys are diagnosed with autism, and her husband cannot fact the fact and leave them. The story is about a mother's fierce love to her autistic sons. Touching movie.
A Mother's Courage: Talking Back to Autism
The mother of an autistic child is determined not to accept the pessimistic prognosis for her son. A Mother’s Courage does not sugarcoat autism, or celebrate it, or cure it. Its strength lies in that it shows the heart-wrenching reality of what families have to go through – the pain they feel when their bubbly, verbal child regresses and becomes autistic. It is a good resource for promoting community awareness that families can share with relatives and neighbors to gain a better understanding of what those affected by autism go through every day.
The Sunshine Boy
"The Sunshine Boy" was the brainchild of producer Margret Dagmar Ericsdottir, whose son Keli has a severe case of autism. A beautiful boy, Keli is seemingly unreachable, lost in a snarl of crossed neurological wires. While autism can manifest itself in more benign fashion -- Asperger syndrome being among its milder forms -- Keli's version renders him oblivious to what the world has to offer, including the considerable love of his family -- or so it seems. Ericsdottir, frustrated by the hand-washing attitude of conventional medicine toward something it doesn't understand, decides to go to the autism frontiers of the U.S. looking for some breakthrough she can't find at home.
Awakenings
American drama film based on Oliver Sacks's 1973 memoir Awakenings. It tells the true story of British neurologist Oliver Sacks, fictionalized as American Malcolm Sayer and portrayed by Robin Williams who, in 1969, discovers beneficial effects of the then-new drug L-Dopa. He administered it to catatonic patients who survived the 1917–28 epidemic of encephalitis lethargica. Leonard Lowe (played by Robert De Niro) and the rest of the patients were awakened after decades of catatonic state and have to deal with a new life in a new time.
I Love you, I love you not
The film is told through the stories of two women: Nana, a grandmother, and Daisy, her granddaughter. Daisy tells Nana of her romance with a young man named Ethan and her problems at school because she's Jewish; Nana tells the story of her young life when she was sent to a ghetto and then a concentration camp. Some believe the girl has Autism traits.
Edward Scissorhands
Based on Tim Burton himself, who claims to have Asperger's syndrome.
An elderly woman describes to her granddaughter where snow comes from by telling the story of a young man named Edward (Johnny Depp) with scissors for hands, the creation of an inventor (Vincent Price). The inventor was inspired to make an artificial man due to the anthropomorphic appearance of his other inventions. His final result was a humanlike young boy who had everything except for hands, but the inventor had a heart attack and died while in the act of creating a pair of real hands for Edward, leaving him forever "unfinished." Many years later, local Avon saleswoman Peg Boggs (Dianne Wiest), after failing to make profits in her suburban neighborhood, visits the Gothic mansion on a hill where Edward lives. There, she finds Edward alone, and decides to take him to her home. Edward becomes friends with Peg's young son Kevin (Robert Oliveri), her husband Bill (Alan Arkin), and later their teenage daughter Kim (Winona Ryder).
Thirty Two Short Films About Glenn Gould
An award-winning 1993 film about the piano prodigy Glenn Gould played by Colm Feore. The film's screenplay was written by François Girard (who also directed) and Don McKellar. (no Asperger's link intended, but, it's obvious)
Silent Fall
An autistic boy witnesses his parents' double murder. Richard Dreyfuss as a controversial therapist, seeks to probe the child's mind in order to solve the case.
Bless the Child
The story begins with Maggie O'Connor (Basinger) a New York nurse meeting her sister Jenna (Bettis) and Jenna's daughter with autism named Cody (Coleman), who is merely days old when first seen, at Maggie's apartment. This is somewhat of a surprise, since Jenna, a drug addict, had been missing for a couple of years. When Maggie steps out of the room, Jenna disappears again, leaving Cody behind. Maggie decides to raise Cody on her own.
Billy the Kid (2007 movie)
While working as a casting director, Jennifer Venditti came across a fifteen year-old sitting alone in a Maine high-school cafeteria. But she couldn't believe such a funny, hyper-articulate kid could go unnoticed, and decided to create her own film--a candid, fly-on-the-wall portrait of a teenager who, in Billy's own words, is "different in the mind."
A Beautiful Mind
After a brilliant but asocial mathematician accepts secret work in cryptography, his life takes a turn to the nightmarish. It very deftly captures John Nash's genius and struggles to fit into NT society. Nothing else I've seen has ever come close..
Four Minutes
In the movie, Roger Bannister is depicted as a very intelligent, high functioning, somewhat quirky individual who doesn't do things according to convention, prefering to train for his epic four minute mile on his own time while working toward a career in medicine. He is criticized by the British press for his unconventional training style. His fourth place finish in the Olympic 1,500 meters appears to prove Roger took the wrong path, but the rest of his life proves he did the right thing.
Dancer in the Dark
The film is set in the U.S. state of Washington in 1964 and focuses on Selma Ježková (Björk), a Czech immigrant who has moved to the United States with her son, Gene Ježek (Kostic). They live a life of poverty as Selma works at a factory with her good friend Kathy, whom she nicknames Cvalda (Deneuve). She rents a trailer home on the property of town policeman Bill Houston (Morse) and his wife Linda Houston (Seymour). She is also pursued by the shy but persistent Jeff (Stormare) who also works at the factory.
Ben X
As an alternative to getting bullied at school, an autistic teenager retreats into the world of online role-playing games. (being severely bullied by some fellow students , very emotional.)
Molly
A man's autistic sister is released from an institution into his care. He allows her to undergo an experimental medical treatment, with unexpectedly drastic results. It transforms her into a genius. Loosely based on a true story.
Happy Feet
Starring Lombardo Boyar, Robin Williams, Elijah Wood. Into the world of the Emperor Penguins, who find their soul mates through song, a penguin is born who cannot sing. But he can tap dance...
The hero, Mumbles, is born with both an exceptional ability and an alienating disability,
that causes him to be shunned,ridiculed and eventually outcast from his community.
Every time I watch it, scene after scene seems to perfectly epitomise the Aspy versus NT
experience.Lack of appreciation for unique skills,demands for societal conformity,the ability to notice details and fit them into a logical but unorthodox framework,etc.
OK, its not 'a movie about autism' but I still feel that many of the characteristics of Asperger's are emulated quite perfectly in Mumbles.
Adam
Adam, a lonely man with Asperger's Syndrome, develops a relationship with his upstairs neighbor, Beth.
Would anyone here count "Revenge of the Nerds" as an autie movie? Probably not, but remember, they ARE nerds Plus the way Lewis laughs and is naive about what the cheerleaders tell him at the beginning of the movie totally seem like AS stereotypes, and the fact that Wormser is in college even though he's 12 years old (and he's good at aerodynamics too), not to mention everything about the character Poindexter (how he gets easily afraid of things, he's eerily quiet, he thinks he's good at the violin even though he isn't, etc.) As for the other characters, Gilbert didn't seem like his character was one that I really got to know through the movie, Takashi is just a "nerd" since he's a foreign exchange student, Lamar is more of an outcast than a nerd because of his....ummm.... "alternative lifestyle", and I dunno why Booger is even considered a nerd in the movie (but his character's hilarious!) The Omega Mu girls, particularly Judy and the nameless girl that Poindexter talked to also seemed Aspie.
Napoleon Dynamite
A listless and alienated teenager decides to help his new friend win the class presidency in their small western high school, while he must deal with his bizarre family life back home.
Under the Piano
An autistic child growing up in the 1940's and 50's with a mother who is bitter because her fear of success has denied to herself a possible career in opera. This anger translates into an over-protectiveness of her mentally ill daughter, even into the child's adulthood. But a loving sister, herself having an arm that is paralyzed, is a bastion against the limitations imposed by the mother and finally helps her sister to live a more full life.
Punch Drunk Love
A beleaguered small-business owner gets a harmonium and embarks on a romantic journey with a mysterious woman.
Adam Sandler, his character in it displays a lot of Aspergian behavior, even though the script never specifies that that's why he is so peculiar.
Mary and Max
A tale of friendship between two unlikely pen pals: Mary, a lonely, eight-year-old girl living in the suburbs of Melbourne, and Max, a forty-four-year old, severely obese man living in New York. Has been rated one of the best Aspie movies ever.
The Woman Who Thinks like a Cow
The amazing story of Dr Temple Grandin's ability to read the animal mind, which has made her the most famous autistic woman on the planet.
Dinner for Schmucks
When he finds out that his work superiors host a dinner celebrating the idiocy of their guests, a rising executive questions it when he's invited, just as he befriends a man who would be the perfect guest. (Asperger's is never mentioned but suspected in a character.)
My goodness! I had no idea there were soooo many! Thank you for sharing that information. I will look for some of those movies! I have seen a few of them, but there are a lot more for me to see. Beth100
Dear John : I was surprised to find so much of the movie focused on the subject and in tears at the way they realistically portrayed Asperger's.
BUMP! Thanks for the posting. I've seen some of them and would like to see the others.
OMG I watched My Name is Khan last night from the list. Cried my eyes out! Laughed and even realized one thing. Autistic people NEED to be here.
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- MamaGlitterBug
on Jan. 22, 2011 at 1:52 PM