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The Australian pop singer’s directorial debut receives severe criticism, as more than 50,000 people have called for her two Golden Globe nominations to be withdrawn for “perpetuating harmful stereotypes”
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Singer Sia has made her film debut And, how could it be otherwise, it is not a conventional project. ‘Music’ brings together autism, drug dependence, loneliness and identity crisis in an unexpected cocktail that oscillates between the realistic indie drama and the dreamlike and colorful video clip. However, since the trailer saw the light, the proposal was received with hostility and suspicion. The reasons have to do with the way in which the character of Music is represented on the screen, who suffers a autism spectrum disorder and that is interpreted by Maddie Ziegler, Sia’s alter ego from the video clip ‘Chandelier’ and who now faces the challenge of being the protagonist in one of those roles that lead you to heaven or hell. The film opens this Friday on various streaming platforms.
So if Dustin Hoffman landed an Oscar for ‘Rain Man,’ which for many years has been considered the iconic film around ASD, Maddie Ziegler will surely settle for being nominated for the Razzie, in part because of her grotesque characterization And because the criticism from the beginning focused on the fact that she was a neurotypical actress, so, as is happening with the claims of the transsexual collective, that role should have been taken over by a person who belonged to the autistic community to be consistent with the inclusive respect to which the film appeals precisely. Above all, if we take into account that Sia herself made an appeal via Twitter to make a casting and later raged on the same social network with anyone who tried to question her decision when choosing Ziegler when, in reality, he had written the character for her.
The malaise continued latent until the movie got two Golden Globe nominations in the categories of Best Comedy or Musical and Best Leading Actress for Kate Hudson (It is perhaps the best performance of his career). It was then that a smear campaign against ‘Music’ began in earnest so that the Foreign Press Association that delivers the awards withdraw those two nominations. So far, more than 50,000 people have signed claiming that autism is portrayed offensively and contributes to perpetuating harmful stereotypes.
Amid all the fuss, what is actually ‘Music’?
The title corresponds to the name of the protagonist, a young man with severe autism who lives with her grandmother Millie (Mary Kate Place) who is in charge of programming a routine so that she feels safe and does not suffer any type of outbreak. Her daily life, which works like a clock, will be broken when Millie dies suddenly and in her will she leaves Music in the care of her sister Zu, a shaved-haired Kate Hudson who is on probation after getting into trouble. because of his alcohol and drug addiction.
Two women alone, each one immersed in their respective particular universe that they will have to connect if they want to survive and that they will find in the figure of their neighbor Ebo (Leslie Odom Jr. nominated in two categories for the Golden Globes for ‘A night in Miami … ‘) an essential support to keep going. Zu finds himself in a dark and dangerous hole and Music isolates himself from his surroundings through imaginative daydreams to escape reality, which are basically video clips of Sia in her luminous side. An operation that recalls what Lars Von Trier already practiced in ‘Dancing in the Dark’, but without integrating reality within the musical numbers that, in this case, immerse us in a parallel dimension of pop abstraction.
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It cannot be said that Sia was not consistent in the conception of ‘Music’. Zu’s character has a lot of herself and her addictions, with the Music one he wanted to pay tribute to the son of a friend who suffers from this disorder, for the choreography he has resorted to Ryan Heffington, who popularized in ‘Chandelier’ spasmodic movements like a performative cathartic dance, the plot integrates many of the themes that run through his discography, between blackness and optimism, between despair and hope, between emptiness and the need to empathize with those who have our side as the only lifeline,. And of course there is Maddie Ziegler with whom he has collaborated since he was 11 years old and who now, at 18, receives this poisoned candy from her mentor.
There are also the songs. Sia has composed a great soundtrack that he considers as an independent and complete album within his career and that is composed of ten songs. Last May the joyous and catchy ‘Together’ was released, with which precisely the film closes and in September the most dramatic single ‘Courage To Change’ appeared, to culminate now with ‘Flotating Through Space’, in which it allies again with David Guetta in an unbeatable tandem.
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