What caused Sia to create this unholy abomination that calls itself a musical? She must've watched one CNN documentary about autism and thought "I can profit off that!"
Maddie Ziegler fills the title role, a low functioning autistic teenager, whose grandmother abruptly dies and her selfish junkie half-sister Kate Hudson must come to terms with reality to care for her. She's aided by Leslie Odom Jr. In the horrifically outdated Magical N---- trope.
The cast is loaded with legitimately talented players, from Hudson and Odom Jr. To Juliette Lewis and Kathy Najimy. Ben Schwartz has a minor role as a flamboyant drug dealer, and Sia herself steps out from behind the camera to appear as a druggie pop star.
However, their presence does not make up for the careless writing, production values and overall cringy vibes. There's also a Billy Elliot B-plot that has nothing to do with the rest of the movie. It ends in tragedy but why the hell do we care? Remove it, it makes no difference on the final product but it could be roughly 20 minutes shorter.
Even half a star is too generous for a music video compilation that apparently needed to shoehorn in a foolhardy attempt at understanding a real disability. Y'know, Sia, maybe you're just a bad director.
Maddie Ziegler fills the title role, a low functioning autistic teenager, whose grandmother abruptly dies and her selfish junkie half-sister Kate Hudson must come to terms with reality to care for her. She's aided by Leslie Odom Jr. In the horrifically outdated Magical N---- trope.
The cast is loaded with legitimately talented players, from Hudson and Odom Jr. To Juliette Lewis and Kathy Najimy. Ben Schwartz has a minor role as a flamboyant drug dealer, and Sia herself steps out from behind the camera to appear as a druggie pop star.
However, their presence does not make up for the careless writing, production values and overall cringy vibes. There's also a Billy Elliot B-plot that has nothing to do with the rest of the movie. It ends in tragedy but why the hell do we care? Remove it, it makes no difference on the final product but it could be roughly 20 minutes shorter.
Even half a star is too generous for a music video compilation that apparently needed to shoehorn in a foolhardy attempt at understanding a real disability. Y'know, Sia, maybe you're just a bad director.