Leap of Faith
Leap of Faith is another older one, it came out in 1992.  The movie is really a thought experiment, a what-if proposition.  What would happen if a sleezy, fake faith healer actually cured someone? So the cure of the disabled character, a teenage boy named Boyd, was already pretty much built in.  The movie used disability as a plot device, but plenty of films have done that.  I can’t really fault them for using it that way, since that is where they started, but the whole what-if is pretty ridiculous.  What happened in this movie could never happen in real life. Unfortunately this derails me into religion, which is certainly another hot topic.  I am a spiritual person, but I don’t believe that God arbitrarily hurts some people and heals others.  I do...
Read MoreWork
I’m currently taking law classes and this semester is Tort Law, which is all the negligence, slip and fall, accident stuff. Â It’s a lot more than that too! Â A huge subject. Â As I read my textbook last night I felt rather furious about how suing for injuries works. Â If you get injured, then you find someone to blame, and you try to get money from them. Â Kind of makes me feel sick. I know we punish people in this society with money, with taking away money, but I wish there was a better way. The thing that upsets me is the whole thing is designed to squeeze as big a payout as possible by playing on people’s pity (for a disturbingly accurate portrayal, see the beginning part of the movie A Civil Action). Â It is a huge step backwards for disability...
Read MoreGlee
I am on the fence about Glee and its disabled character, Artie.  I continue to watch the show, but after three seasons I still don’t know how I feel about the character’s portrayal.  Certainly, this show is not realism and is not meant to be.  It is absurd and over the top, the characters are not realistic, they are caricatures.   And that’s the fun of the show. The Good 1) Artie is treated just like all the other kids, as much of a loser and social outcast as the other gleeks 2) Artie is given romantic relationship plotlines 3) He is now part of the dance routines.  In the first few episodes he was almost always with the band, over on the side, playing guitar.  Eventually, though, they started putting him into the dance routines with the other...
Read MoreStar Wars
If you are like me, you never think of Star Wars being a movie with disability in it.  A friend recently pointed out that Darth Vader is so bad-ass that you never think about him being a vent-dependent triple-amputee! I love that.  He is disabled, but so powerful that no one crosses him. It would be  a problem to me if the movie suggested that he became a psychotic bad guy trying to take over the world because he was bitter about the disability.  Many writers would go that direction with it. Star Wars doesn’t go there.  The disability is completely in the background and not used as part of the plot, except for the way his suit makes him look and sound super scary. That’s a win.  Congratulations, Star Wars, I know you were just waiting for my approval!...
Read MoreMillion Dollar Baby
I have never watched Million Dollar Baby. It won awards, people were talking about it, it was a big deal. I considered watching it until I heard about the ending. I am so tired of every movie with a quadriplegic character in it being about how that character wants to die. It is so trite and so ignorant. It’s lazy on the part of the writers. From what I’ve heard the depiction of quadriplegia is over dramatic and unrealistic. I should watch it for the sake of completeness in my “research” of disability in the media, but I’d rather keep my sanity. The only thing watching that movie is going to do for me is raise my blood...
Read MoreGuzzarish
I’ve just come back from a trip to India, so I thought it might be appropriate to complain about a new Hindi movie! 🙂 Guzzarish just came out recently and it is a lush and visually stunning movie. Unfortunately, the preview was a whole lot better than the movie itself. I can’t be terribly surprised because India is not very progressed in terms of disability issues, but I still had my hopes high for it. It is about a high level quad who wants to die. What a shock. Sigh. Does no one ever get tired of that plot? How about some creativity, people? It wasn’t clear why he wanted to die. He had been living for fourteen years with his injury. He had a lovely house, a gorgeous nurse who loved him, he had a successful radio program and was beloved of many...
Read MoreProgress Trackers
At proofreaders; available for pre-order
What Is Meant To Be
Second draft
Homework & Homicide (working title)
Second Draft
Book Montage
RFW winner October 7, 2011
