Such a huge amount of TV, and especially Movies, are geared towards a neurotypical audience.
As an autistic kid growing up, the only actor I ever cared about was Brent Spiner (Data, from Star Trek). I never watched the original series as a kid, but after watching it as an adult, Data was obviously carrying on a role started by Spock, another all-time great. Maybe they both count as rare role models for ASD folks?
My favorite movie is this non-movie called Gizmo! (1977). (It’s free on youtube among other places.) It’s mostly a collection of old black and white footage of weird inventions. It definitely has neurotypical folks in mind as part of the audience, giving them lots of weird things to laugh at, but I could watch or scroll through info about random unique contraptions for days.
I can’t think of any off the top of my head that are specifically about neurodiversity. It’s hard to find representation at all, let alone good representation. Most is inaccurate to the point of being harmful.
One movie I quite like is Thelma, a Norwegian spookythriller from 2017. Sort of like Carrie if you’re familiar with that book (and subsequent movie).
Thelma was great! I loved the atmosphere and trying to figure out the character’s emotions throughout the movie.
I could never really pick just one, but for the sake of discussion I will go with:
2005 Constantine with Keanu and Rachel Weisz.
The reason I am going with this is that its one of my all time favourites, but more importantly I had never thought to look at Constantine’s ability to see evil is like being divergent. His interaction with normies parallel those in the community although at a very different level and fictionalized.
John sees the world differently, reacts to it differently, prioritizes things differently, feels things differently, judges things differently. In the process he takes someone who has masked and rejected her differences and gets her to accept that she too is divergent.
I never connected these dots but I can see how the divergent part of me identified with this almost unconsciously.
Thinking back on it I would say my favorite movie has always been The Count of Monte Cristo which was remade when I was young and I just love the main character.
But media that is very different ,and probably appealed to me due to being nuro divergent, I would say The Triplets of Belleville. It is a French silent animated film that is very quirky with mostly implied thoughts and feelings. Also the plot has some buck wild choices, such as the mob kidnapping professional cyclists and giving them wine in an IV and forcing them to race while people bet on them. Also using old German hand grenades to fish up frogs to make frog leg soup. Gonna have to rewatch it now.
I find it really interesting the way sound is done in Bullitt. It’s so sparse that when there is a sound or a musical score it leaps out at you and the way mundane background sounds are amplified almost reflects how I experience things.
The film doesn’t try to throw a bunch of noise and lights at you to keep your attention, although it does have one of the coolest car chases in the history of cinema.
And don’t worry about trying to read emotions, everyone in this film is far ‘too cool’ for that. Repeated viewings are also rewarded with a better understanding of the plot.
Severance was also great for me, I love being able to dig through and find all the little details about the world that aren’t really explained (yet at least)
Scott Pilgrim vs the World. Somehow everytime I watch it, it sucks me into its world. The comics are better, but it’s much easier for me to rewatch this every year than the comics every few years.
