Neurodivergent (Headcanon) Alley: Will (Fire Island)

*Will-related spoilers.*

Okay, I know I’ve already written about my autistic interpretation of Mr. Darcy, and as a modernized reimagined Darcy, Will can easily be grandfathered into that post. But I rewatched Fire Island recently, and it left me wanting to talk about Will in his own right.

Because my god, he’s just so wonderfully autistic! From the first moment we see him onscreen, we see that social cues aren’t his forte, but that his misreadings are often assumed to be snobbishness. He and Noah meet when Noah tries to rope him into helping him escape from the unflattering attentions of a determined rice queen—Noah turns down the guy’s offer to get him a drink, insisting that his “boyfriend” Will is handling that. But Will very honestly says he doesn’t know what’s happening. Noah, who’s quick and sharp in social situations, doesn’t see a shy, uncomfortable guy who’s bewildered at being called “honey” by a stranger. He just sees a fellow Asian American hanging him out to dry as Noah tries to extricate himself from the lame dude who’s exoticizing him.

During the afterparty at the beach house, Charlie is sent to go find Will, who’s off “hiding” during the big chaotic social situation, and when Charlie finds him, Will wonders why he even had to come on this trip. Then there’s the Alice Munro scene, where Noah browbeats the taciturn Will into having more than a monosyllabic conversation. As Will disagrees with some of Noah’s literary opinions, Noah wants to know why they’re arguing, but Will doesn’t even realize an argument is happening.

Will is pretty quick to realize that his first impression of Noah was wrong, and to an extent, he gets that Noah hasn’t exactly warmed to him. He doesn’t fully know why that is, though—he doesn’t know that Noah overheard Will calling him “not hot enough to be that annoying” and is later crestfallen to learn that Noah heard what he said. And even more importantly, he really doesn’t know how to fix it. He tries in various ways, without much success. He offers Noah a water bottle for Howie after he gets sick and gets called out for single-use plastic waste. He talks with Noah about Alice Munro, thinking they’re having an interesting discussion about literature when Noah thinks they’re arguing. He tells Noah where his friends went when they leave the underwear party. And of course, after he realizes Noah heard his insulting remark at the afterparty, he writes a letter to apologize, additionally trying to offer what context he can for his warning about Dex. A lot of Will’s fumbling attempts to smooth things over with Noah involve giving him information, as if things will be all right if he can just explain himself sufficiently—big autistic mood!

I’ve said that Conrad Ricamora is 100% a Colin Firth-level Darcy, and it’s really true. So many tiny moments of Will’s characterization come together to deliver peak Darcy-ness, and the autistic coding is a major part of that. When he’s forced into playing Head’s Up with the five “sisters,” you can physically see the panic in his eyes as Keegan and Luke scream at him about Marisa Tomei, after which he shrugs off Charlie’s attempt to reassure him. He goes to the underwear party (in shorts,) still wearing his watch and standing on his own in the corner. After he insists that he’s a fun guy and Noah volunteers him for a dance-off, the drag queen emceeing the contest initially thinks he’s cute but soon starts laughing at his stilted, one-word answers to her questions, suggesting that he’s a robot. He gets awkward and nervous about being perceived too closely—when Noah lightly teases him about eating a tiny ice cream cone, he chucks it away, then claims it was melting. Oh my god, I love it so much!

Doctor Who: Series 4, Episodes 9-14 – “The Power of the Daleks” (1966)

For whatever reason, it seems like post-regeneration stories are often just okay. I suppose it’s at least something to do with the attention poured into introducing and establishing the new Doctor—with that as the major focus, the plot can be something of an afterthought (especially if new companions are being introduced as well.) I often look back on these episodes favorably, but it’s almost invariably because of the new-Doctor stuff rather than any particular narrative ingenuity. But this serial? The first post-regeneration story ever? This is one that fires on all cylinders.

The First Doctor has just regenerated into his second iteration, and Ben and Polly don’t know what to think or believe. Can they trust this apparent stranger who’s suddenly in the TARDIS, one who looks and acts so different from “their” Doctor? It’s a decision they have to wrestle with on the go, because it’s not the only issue they have to deal with. There’s also the small matter of landing on a sulfurous colony planet, discovering a dead body, the Doctor being mistaken for an examiner from Earth, and a colony scientist who’s made a very deadly discovery. On the latter front, the new Doctor comes face-to-face once more with an old enemy (come on, you’ve seen the title of this post—you know it’s the Daleks.)

Since One-to-Two was the show’s very first regeneration, there was more pressure on the show to get it right than probably any other time in Who history (although debuting Nine to kickstart new Who and the Twelve-to-Thirteen regeneration also carried especially big stakes.) No doubt everyone involved knew that, if they didn’t pull this off, the wild ride of the last three+ seasons was going to be over, and so they went for broke. A solid chunk of the first episode is spent with Ben and Polly—and Two, honestly—grappling with the ramifications of the regeneration, and it’s a recurring subject that they keep coming back to over the course of the story. Ben and Polly serve as our audience stand-ins, just as confused and unsure about this new guy as the kids at home in 1966 no doubt were.

However, we then have the Second Doctor, who I think would be pretty difficult not to love. Even though the episodes themselves are lost and we only have audio tracks synced to animated recreations of the episodes, Two makes the force of his impish personality known quickly. I love the little details of him testing out his new body, he’s just as savvy as he ever was even though his new incarnation is prone to strategically play the fool, and he creates his own pre-screwdriver “sonic.”

Putting him up against the Daleks for his first story is a strong tactical move, one that pays off well. This is an excellent Dalek story, with a lot of creepy atmosphere, good twists and turns, and an important, messy human element that kicks the whole thing up a notch. The plot is filled with great notes of interest, and this story gave us the unnerving image of a Dalek “obediently” serving tea decades before “Victory of the Daleks” did it.

As for Ben and Polly, despite both of them disappearing for an episode (the only way actors got any vacation time during the fast pace of early Who’s shooting schedule,) they’re still used well. Having two of them allows us a chance to see two different perspectives on the regeneration, which brings some nice balance to the story, and whatever reservations they have, they still pull their weight when it counts. They investigate, they sneak around, they get captured, they escape—you know, classic companion moves.

Dune: Part Two (2024, PG-13)

 

*Spoilers for Dune: Part One.*

I should say up top, I watched this movie several months ago and didn’t review it at the time. It kind of falls into the category of “undeniably well-made but not for me,” so my memories of it aren’t the sharpest. I’ll work off my impressions of it as well as I can, but I’m well aware that I’m not equipped to discuss some of the richer aspects of the film.

What’s It About?

After the Harkonnens overthrew House Atreides in the first film, Paul and his mother fled to the desert. Some of the Fremen are suspicious of the Atreides, while others begin to believe Paul is their prophesied Lisan al Gaib. As he grows closer to a Fremen girl named Chani, Paul wrestles with apocalyptic visions that seem to warn of calamity if he assumes this messianic role.

Who’s in It?

Most of the major players from the first film are back, of course, like Timothée Chalamet as Paul, Rebecca Ferguson as Lady Jessica, and Stellan Skarsgård as Baron Harkonnen. I’m glad we get a lot of more from Zendaya’s Chani in this film, and I like seeing more of Javier Bardem’s Stilgar as well (though it would’ve been good to see more of the prominent Fremen characters played SWANA actors, given the obvious allegories in the storytelling.) As for new characters, Florence Pugh is understated but effective as Princess Irulan, I was not expecting to see Christopher Walken in this movie, and Austin Butler is absolutely wilding out as the Baron’s unhinged nephew, Feyd-Rautha.

What’s It Nominated For?

Dune: Part Two was nominated for five Oscars:

·        Best Picture

·        Best Cinematography

·        Best Production Design

·        Best Sound

·        Best Visual Effects

What Do I Love About It?

·        As I said, “undeniably well-made but not for me,” so this will be a shorter entry. This isn’t a bad movie—far from it—and I can’t pinpoint specific aspects that I don’t like. It just doesn’t really grab me. I’m sure it doesn’t help that I haven’t read the book, and no doubt there’s plenty of complexity that I’m just not seeing because I can’t access those deeper levels. But in this section, I want to focus on what I did like.

·        On a design level, it’s magnificent, much like the first film. It looks and sounds incredible: the use of sound, the sets and costumes, and the camera work are all a cinematic feast.

·        Great acting all around. Like I said, I especially appreciate getting to see more of Zendaya’s Chani and learning more about who she is as a character.

·        The Lisan al Gaib story is interesting to me, a very conscious deconstruction of the traditional White Savior narrative—and just the sci-fi/fantasy Chosen One narrative in general. I like seeing the different characters navigate this thorny topic.

Warnings

Violence, strong thematic elements, disturbing imagery, (fictional) drug use, sensuality, and language.