TRIBECA FILM FESTIVAL 2015 // A FILM REVIEW OF "AUTISM IN LOVE"
The 2015 Tribeca Film Festival, presented by AT&T, runs April 15th-26th and features hundreds of features, documentaries, short films, and special events all throughout downtown New York City. The ArtsWire Weekly's three featured reviewers Mateo, Derek, & Chrisena are hitting the festival and bringing the reviews right to you! What you should see and what you should skip...
Dating can be difficult, but for the five individuals represented in this film, it is a downright battle. AUTISM IN LOVE is a beautiful documentary that weaves three stories together to enlighten us as to how men and women who live on the spectrum are fully capable of having ordinary loving relationships.
Of course, autism does add an extra challenge in some of these relationships, but each story told is relatable and quite stirring. We meet a young couple (Lindsey and Dave) who, after meeting ten years ago, have been dating and now live together. Their relationship is great, they are both high functioning, and employed. Throughout the film Dave continues to try and propose to Lindsey but just as it would in a fiction movie, small things keep happening to prevent it until the very right moment appears. Then we meet a middle-aged couple (Stephen and Geeta) that has been married for over ten years. He lives with his elderly parents and she is in the middle of a quite intense battle with cancer. One truly unique thing about their story is when Geeta’s cancer grows stronger, Stephen can’t quite communicate how it’s making him feel. Heartbreaking. The last individual we meet is a young man named Lenny Felix, who lives with his extremely supportive mother, just wants to find a girlfriend, and is dealing with his frustration of feeling different. These are three completely different situations that blend perfectly by director Matt Fuller to tell an honest and beautifully cohesive story that all people are entitled and capable of Nicholas Sparks-esque love stories. None of us are truly that different. We all have the amazing capacity to love and to be loved.
VERDICT: MUST SEE.
DIRECTED BY Matt Fuller STARRING Stephen Goodman, Geeta Goodman, Lindsey Nebeker, Dave Hamrick, Lenny Felix, Kathy Lettieri.
Playing as part of The 2015 Tribeca International Film Festival. For tickets & schedules: http://www.tribecafilm.com
BOTTOM LINE: At times I laughed. Other times, I sobbed, but I left feeling as though I had taken a step closer to what it means to be human.
CHRISENA RICCI once went to a costume party dressed in an all black dress and black wig. No one there could guess who she was. So she shouted out, "I'm Christina Ricci, without the T or I and add an E!" Everyone stood there confused, she was annoyed, so she stormed off. She never returned to that apartment ever again. Which is fine, because she later realized she was at the wrong party. She now lives in New York City.