The Accountant is a pretty good, very stupid movie. But its one of my favored types of dumb, the kind that commits fully to all its outlandish ideas without betraying how gol-derned dunderheaded it all is, but none of that matters if the movie is fun to watch, and this one is. I suppose its in some ways a good thing, we've got cinematic representation of the autistic that in its own way, celebrates the abilities (big question mark) of people who are non-standard in many ways. But like its less outwardly respectable but more fun fore bearer
Chocolate, it uses autism more as an explanation for its heroes extraordinary ass-kicking abilities and character development rather than bother to actually explore much of anything about it condition it depicts. But all the same, at least its a better example than these sorts of things usually get in mainstream media.
Much better though was the unusually precise character portrait
The Edge of Seventeen, which details a tumultuous time in a person's life where even very mundane things can seem like world-shattering events. What's really great about this film is that it allows its protagonist to be kind of a jerk, she's self-absorbed and neurotic to the point of near toxicity, but she's also aware of these things herself, and her ping-ponging emotional state that she's constantly self-narrating while conversing (more like talking at, really) makes her a tremendously relatable and even likable character, even as she acts in ways that aren't so eminently affable. Its a humane film about sometimes inhumane people, its consistently very funny and feels truer about its sort of specific kind of experience. Hey, I was never a teenage girl, but this very good film effectively put me in the headspace of one, confined within a morass of conflicting personas, desires, and paths to take. No wonder she's such a mess.
