Music (2021)
Jump to navigation
Jump to search
| Music (2021) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 What could've been an endearing film about the challenges of autism turned out to be an insulting and tone-deaf mess.
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Music is a 2021 American musical drama film directed by singer-songwriter Sia. Sia and Dallas Clayton and stars Kate Hudson, Leslie Odom Jr, and Maddie Ziegler co-wrote the film. Originally conceived in 2015 as a non-musical film, the film was subsequently re-conceived as a musical with a larger budget. The film was released on January 14, 2021 in Australia and February 12, 2021 in the United States. The film was panned by critics and bombed at the box office.
Plot
The film follows Zu Gamble (Kate Hudson), a former drug dealer who becomes the Guardian of her autistic younger sister Music (Maddie Ziegler). Zu soon meets Ebo Odom (Leslie Odom Jr), a boxer who teaches her how to care for Music. Throughout the film, musical dance sequences take place inside Music's mind, showing how she views the world.
Why It Can't Take It Higher
- The main problem with this film lies in its wasted potential; it could have been a poignant and delightful tale about a girl who is has severe non-verbal autism. However, it disappoints due to the exaggerated and stereotypical depiction of autism. The central character, Music's outbursts, strict routines, and fixations do not reflect the wide range of experiences found within the autistic community.
- The casting of Maddie Ziegler as the lead character sparked controversy, given that Ziegler is neurotypical and was presumably chosen for her frequent collaborations with Sia. Ziegler expressed concerns about the potential of mocking autistic individuals during the production, which led to an incident where she broke down in tears on the set.
- Prior to the film's release, numerous individuals supported Ziegler's casting, arguing that a neurotypical actor playing an autistic character is acceptable if portrayed sensitively and respectfully. However, upon the film's release, Ziegler's representation of Music was criticized for not being sensitive or respectful, intensifying the ongoing debate.
- As if the situation wasn't dire enough, Sia also attacked individuals on Twitter who criticized her film. Fortunately, she recognized the issue swiftly and proceeded to delete her Twitter account.
- The film consistently demonstrates a lack of understanding or research on ASD by both the writers and Sia herself.
- In contrast to Rent, which genuinely grasped its serious themes, this film fails to acknowledge the autism community respectfully.
- Indeed, the film seems to employ emotional manipulation by forcibly integrating the theme of autism, possibly to introduce an element of intrigue and to appeal to the autism community.
- The movie even depicts characters in blackface, with one example being Madison Ziegler in the "Oh Body" dance number. Also, the hand movements in that same number have been interpreted as motor tics of the fingers added to mock neurodivergent.
- The musical sequences that occur within Music's imagination, though striking, often arise abruptly and at inopportune moments, and they may even remind some viewers of experiences induced by alcohol or hallucinogens.
- Moreover, they clash with the film's grave subject matter, giving the impression they belong to a light-hearted musical rather than a serious film.
- Misleading Title: Although Music is the eponymous character, she is largely depicted as a secondary figure, with the film's narrative centering predominantly on Zu and Ebo.
- The acting ranges from bland to annoying (except for Kate Hudson and Leslie Odom Jr.).
- Maddie Ziegler's portrayal of Music, a non-verbal autistic character, has been criticized for being overly exaggerated and stereotypical. Her performance seems to mock rather than authentically represent an autistic individual, particularly with the excessive use of an open-mouth expression. Nevertheless, she cannot be held fully responsible as she was compelled to portray the character against her wishes.
- The narrative is fragmented and perplexing, peppered with clichés. Specifically, the initial scenes depicting Zu selling drugs to her clients seem as though they belong to an entirely different film.
- Extremely poor characterization:
- Ebo is depicted as a stereotypical and generic "Magical Negro", a person of color who helps the main character through the course of the plot and helps Zu control her autistic sister. Also, he mentions that he has AIDS, which goes nowhere and only serves as a racist stereotype.
- Music is also a bad character, as she is just a generic autistic teenager whose characterization amounts to an amalgamation of various autistic stereotypes without a personality of any kind. She also never feels grief or sadness, is self-sufficient enough to brush her teeth and dress without explanation, always sees the world as a bed of roses and every other character respects her at first sight, making her a Mary Sue. Not to mention that she is objectified throughout the movie. Ultimately, she only appears in the movie as a plot device and an obstacle Zu and Ebo have to overcome.
- Felix only serves as a token Asian character who does almost nothing to the plot other than being a background character and introducing Ebo's role as a boxing coach who unwittingly gets killed when trying to stop his father in an altercation and gets sent to Heaven in a rickshaw in one of the musical sequences.
- Sia's appearance in the movie seems entirely arbitrary and serves as a means of self-promotion.
- The movie has been criticized for endorsing the ableist concept of restraining individuals with ASD during moments of stress or overwhelm, leading to significant controversy.
- Furthermore, the techniques depicted for managing autistic meltdowns in two scenes are both incorrect and hazardous. In the first scene, Ebo demonstrates a supine restraint on Music, lifting and pinning her down until she ceases to struggle, claiming he's "crushing her with his love." In another scene, Zu uses a face-down prone restraint on Music, recalling Ebo's method. Such practices in reality could be lethal, leading to asphyxiation. The film's release, a year after the George Floyd incident, which sparked racial and political protests globally and involved a fatal chokehold, further complicates its reception. The lack of delay in the movie's release means it came out post-incident, and had it been released on its initial date in October 2020, amidst ongoing protests, the backlash could have been even greater.
- Both of these restraint scenes are not only downright distressing and very insulting to the disability community but doing this to anyone, let alone autistic people can actually kill them. The characters pinning down Music can also be reminiscent of how George Floyd died, which makes this even more controversial than it already is.
- The movie has minimal storyline, with half of its duration filled with musical numbers that fail to progress the narrative.
- Unlike other musical films like Hamilton, which advance the plot with their rich storytelling songs, this film hinders its plot and if one were to take all of the sequences out, it doesn't affect any of its stories. This is because it originally was not even supposed to be a musical, but it became one midway into development.
- Sia was never good at directing.
- Before she directed this film, she claimed that she was "pretty good" at directing and "felt a little bit braver".
- The cinematography is quite poor, with an excessive reliance on high contrast and exposure.
- The excessive sensory stimulation, loudness, and abundant strobe effects make it particularly challenging to watch for individuals with autism and other neurodiverse conditions, exacerbated by the intense brightness and high contrast.
- Creating a film targeted at autistic individuals without making it sensory-friendly defeats the purpose, as it does not accommodate their needs.
- Given the movie's reception by critics and audiences alike, it essentially confirmed Sia's reputation as an unfavorable director.
- She even went so far as to defend the film and was unable to accept criticism from anyone on social media. Compounding the issue, she accused an individual with autism of being a "bad actor" on Twitter. Following the film's release, Sia continued to display a snarky and condescending attitude towards the disabled and neurodivergent community, further fueled by the movie's lingering negative reception.
- The situation is exacerbated by the claim that Sia coerced Ziegler into performing a role against her will, which would imply mental and emotional abuse, as well as forcing her to act contrary to her desires. Additionally, such actions are often categorized as grooming.
- Sia apologized for the portrayal of prone restraint and pledged to eliminate such scenes and include a disclaimer about restraint risks. Despite this, the scenes remain in all versions of the film, and no disclaimer has been added.
- The soundtrack attempts to achieve an artistic quality but ends up being strange and irritating instead.
- The other serious subjects in the film, which consist of drugs, death, and divorce are also executed poorly and also have less focus.
- Extremely awful pacing.
Redeeming Qualities
- The musical numbers, while random and idiotic, are well-choreographed.
- Good acting from Kate Hudson and Leslie Odom Jr. (who later portrayed Victor Fielding in The Exorcist: Believer), as well as Brandon Soo Hoo (who portrayed Tran in Tropic Thunder) in a supporting role as Tanner, despite those actors being completely wasted.
- Zu and Tanner are both likable and tolerable characters.
- The film does have a very unique concept, though it was miserably executed.
- The posters look nice.
- The filmmakers at least meant well.
- As mentioned above, this is understandable given that Maddie was forced to act in the film against her wishes.
Videos
Reception
The film received overwhelmingly negative reviews from both critics and audiences. Rotten Tomatoes, 9% of 45 reviews from critics for Music are positive, with an average rating of 3.7/10. The website's critics' consensus reads, "Offensive in its depiction of autism—and painfully misguided in essentially every respect—Music is a vanity project that begs to be turned down." Meanwhile, Metacritic, which assigned the film a weighted average score of 23 out of 100 based on 18 critics, the film received "generally unfavorable reviews." Despite this, the film was nominated for two Golden Globes, both of which it lost. The show's presenters Tina Fey and Amy Poehler called the film an "international floparooni" and "Twitter is saying it's the most offensive casting since Kate Hudson was the Weight Watchers spokesperson" in response to Ziegler playing an autistic person.
WatchMojo listed this film as #1 for worst movies of 2021. Brad Jones, best known as the Cinema Snob, named this film his #10 worst movie of 2021.
Awards and Nominations
- Music was nominated for four Razzies, winning three of them, for Worst Actress (Kate Hudson), Worst Supporting Actress (Maddie Ziegler), and Worst Director (Sia). It lost out to Absolute Proof in the Worst Picture category.
Comments
Loading comments...
Categories:
- Bad media
- Bad movies
- Bad films
- 2020s media
- 2020s films
- Musical films
- Box office bombs
- Drama films
- Romance films
- Controversial films
- Offensive films
- Propaganda films
- Rip-off films
- Independent films
- Annoying films
- Razzie Awards Worst Picture nominees
- American films
- Racist films
- Boring films
- Featured on TV Tropes' So Bad, It's Horrible
- Films aware of how bad they are
- Mean-spirited films
- Films with misleading titles
- Movies that killed careers