So we all know what this is. This movie is supposed to be a failure and incredibly offensive to boot.

I had to watch it. For the thrill of it.

I actually got through the whole thing.

A manic Australian woman brought this thing to fruition. She, ubiquitous obscenely rich pop star she was...already grooming us to perversity with her use of doppelganger child dancers in her music videos...confidently presented her creation to the world.

She funded it. Many, many different people, actors, other staff....came in every day, and did what they were paid to do. Read the lines. Acted it out. Put their faces on this thing.

What did they expect? Perhaps some people anticipated a train wreck, but hey, they were getting paid. But you have to imagine that many just...trusted this Sia person. Were like ok, I get it. It's art. This feels weird, but some of the best art is so great because it makes you feel...a little unsafe.

Was it as I expected? Yeah, kind of. It was hard for me personally to watch because I have my own Munchausen tendencies, and I have my own fascination of and affection for people with disabilities, people with autism in particular. If you're like me, you'll feel pretty uncomfortable and embarrassed for yourself. Yeah it's probably not doing autistic people any favors but I don't think the film was so damaging. The society that incubated all these feelings and ideas around autism and about race is what's wrong with the world. The film is just very cringy. You'd feel sorry for Sia if she didn't have the privilege of being loaded and so high up on the pop hierarchy that people "yes-manned" her into embarrassing delusional territory.

It was an ambitious endeavor, making a movie about an endearing autistic stereotype complete with elaborate costumed dance numbers. It's pretty fascinating. It tries, there was maybe a seed of something brilliant despite its ample misguided lapses in judgement. Yes, the endearing African stereotype character is very lame. The arrested development recovering alcoholic character is very lame. The cute, barely verbal, stimming main character is very lame. The film is not as funny or cool as it thinks it is. But you know what? A lot of films look that way after 70 years, ones that were actually brilliant when they were created. We are all limited by our own individual perspectives, and also by the perspective of the time and place we live in.

The unintentional message of the film is: autistic people make me feel a certain way.

I imagine the director was going for: this is how I conceive their experience might be like. They are absolutely beautiful people, even though they can be gross. I know there is something lost in translation, and that they brilliant in their way but their minds work differently from ours and they are not adapted to the world as well as other people. It is supposed to be like I'm so grateful these people exist that I want to give something back, I want to be able to express something for them or translate something for them that they are unable to, to show them they're beautiful without lying, or glossing over the fact that they look weird.

Its problem is that it is accidentally objectifying, which is gross.