Big Neurodivergent Energy Films: 1-5

We’ve looked at a few Big Neurodivergent Energy TV shows, now how about some movies? Most of the films on today’s list are newer entries that I’ve watched in the last year, but they quickly joined the ranks of my favorites. 

 

Amélie

This was an early “grown-up” film that I really loved, so it makes sense that it has exceedingly autistic vibes. Arguably, every Jean-Pierre Jeunet film does, but this one does it in such an endearing, lovable way. From the narrator fastidiously detailing every character’s likes and dislikes (and obsessions,) to the painfully shy heroine concocting “stratagems” to connect with the man she likes, to Amélie’s deep-seated desire to help others/punish injustice combined with her intense need not to be perceived doing either, it just feels so lovingly autistic. Amazing!

 

The Little Mermaid

Yes, I’m specifically talking about the live-action adaptation here, although points can definitely be made for the animated version. While the neurodivergent coding may not be quite as deep-seated here as it is in some of the other films on this list, it was one of the first—maybe the first—I saw once I’d really started considering the possibility that I was autistic and ADHD. And Ariel and Eric both leapt off the screen for me. I love the tenor of their relationship, how it develops through their special interests and grows without the need for verbal communication on both sides. Seeing people online talk about how neurodivergent both of these characters are really helped crystalize my understanding of myself.

 

Nimona

Nimona is definitely an example where the film itself feels autistic/ADHD, not just the characters. I love the fast-paced humor and frenetic action combined with the emotional character drama and the found-family themes. I love Nimona’s explanation to Ballister about what shapeshifting feels like—the trans allegory is evident, of course, but I also see it as a commentary on masking and the importance of giving yourself permission to be “free.”

 

Nope

I love both OJ and Em, how their traits are so different from one another and clash so much, but how they both come through for each other the best they can. And I love how their respective traits end up helping them succeed—not in an “autism/ADHD is actually a superpower!” kind of way, but in a way that their particular situation dovetails so well with OJ’s special interest and Em’s penchant for collecting hobbies. Their respective autistic- and ADHD-coded traits can create challenges for them professionally and interpersonally, but when it comes to a UFO over their ranch, they lock in!

 

Polite Society

Oh my god, I love it so much. Ria’s hyperfocus and daydreaming, the way she infuses her life with the tension and drama of an action film, the general energy and humor and pacing and secondhand embarrassment. It’s so ADHD to me—I feel it in my bones.

Relationship Spotlight: Ballister Boldheart & Nimona (Nimona)

*Spoilers.*

I love the heck out of both of these characters, and they’re at their absolute best when they’re together. Nimona has so much great stuff going for it, but for me, the dynamic between these two is what takes it from a great movie to a phenomenal movie.

Ballister is at his lowest when Nimona breezes into his hideout/”lair” (he would dispute that terminology.) He’s been falsely accused of murdering the queen, which is horrible enough in itself because now the whole kingdom hates him and is after him. But the queen was someone who believed in him when a lot of others didn’t and threw her support behind him becoming a knight, so to see her murdered in front of him is awful, and to have him appear to have been responsible for it is even worse. He’s obsessed with clearing his name and has been spinning theories by his lonesome.

Enter Nimona, a bundle of punk chaos and energy. In her mind, they’re just the same, and a “villain” like Ballister will be just as eager as she is to tear down the system that surrounds the kingdom with high walls and upholds the knights as its greatest citizens. She volunteers for sidekick duty, eagerly painting a picture of all the enemies they can skewer/maim/eviscerate together. Ballister, naturally, reacts in horror, both to the vivid imagery and to the notion that he’s a villain.

Labels and stances are important to Ballister. He’s a good guy, so he always strives to do right. He at first completely rejects Nimona’s bloodthirsty offers of help, only begrudgingly allowing her to assist when his straight-and-narrow approach to clearing his name immediately gets him thrown in the dungeon. From there, he makes it plain that he only wants Nimona’s help on very specific terms: no violence, no mayhem. He’s dipping the barest toe over the line and doesn’t want to go any further.

When it’s revealed that Nimona is a “monster” who shapeshifts joyously and with reckless abandon, their partnership almost ends there and then. Not just because Ballister, trained as a knight, was taught that monsters are the kingdom’s greatest enemies and he freaks out to realize he was unwittingly fraternizing with one. But also because Nimona doesn’t appreciate the fear and judgment that bubbles up in him after she shows him who she is.

But against all odds, they stick with it, playing a societal and moral tug-of-war as they search for the exonerating evidence Ballister is so desperate for. He’s anxious for Nimona not to hurt or terrify anyone, understandably, but it goes beyond that. It bothers him that she’s loud, that she’s overt, that she doesn’t disguise her shapeshifting. He squirms at the natural attention she attracts, and he not-so-subtly suggests that she’d be more “comfortable” if she maintained a human form to fit in better.

Meanwhile, Nimona enjoys poking holes in Ballister’s unshakable faith in the system (you know, the one that now thinks he’s a ruthless killer.) She pushes back against his naivete; at every turn, as he wants to take things to the proper channels, she points out how shortsighted that is. But when they do it his way and, time and again, his system lets him down, she’s there to grin wickedly as he realizes the only way out is for them to “break stuff.”

Somewhere along the way, their arguments start to morph into understanding. When Nimona is struck by an arrow, Ballister is concerned and takes him to bandage her leg. And even though Nimona’s physiology means she can’t really feel the pain, she’s shaken by the care he takes in tending to her. Prior to this scene, she’s been flippant about his smallminded questions, but now, when he asks her what shapeshifting feels like, she opens up to him. Still, she tells him what he needs to know rather than what he asks, explaining that the longer she goes without shapeshifting, the more physical discomfort she feels, with pressure building inside her until she does what she was born to do.

In the final act of the movie, Ballister is drawn back into his old prejudices when he learns that Nimona is the original monster at the heart of the kingdom’s 1000-year-old rhetoric. And though he almost immediately regrets his kneejerk distrust, the damage is done: Nimona has been rejected yet again, and her pain and anger flares out in every direction. To the kingdom, she appears to be every bit the terrifying monster that they fear, but really, she’s a girl who’s badly hurting and isn’t sure she can carry on at all. She finds herself pushed to the brink, but on the precipice, Ballister is there, holding out a hand to stop her and apologizing for his stupid ignorance.

For someone who’s placed a lot of value on his reputation and is very concerned with who’s good and who’s bad, it’s a big deal that Ballister publicly aligns himself with a “monster” like this. He comes, not to convince her not to be so terrifying or to insist that everything will be fine if she just tries to fit in better. No, he comes to say he’s sorry for treating her like a thing, to admit that everything he’s ever believed in was wrong, to beg her not to hurt herself.

I love this: the bravery in Ballister’s humility and the revelation it is for Nimona to see someone who wants to stand with her. Beautiful.

Obviously, this last part is pretty heavy, but these two are also so funny. I mean, Nimona “causing a diversion” by shapeshifting into Ballister and cackling about how evil he is? Ballister frantically stealing a car while Nimona terrorizes an important witness by shapeshifting into a little demon boy? Nimona and Ballister dancing on a table together (Nimona as a shark!) at a high moment in their mission? All objectively fantastic. Get you an onscreen duo who can do both, seriously.

Nimona (2023, PG)

*Premise spoilers.*

I haven’t read the ND Stevenson graphic novel it’s based on, but I loved this film. Nimona is hilarious, heartfelt, action-packed, thoughtful, and hard-hitting in all the best ways. It crams so much wildness and so much emotion into a single movie, which is filled with interesting, well-played characters and terrific animation.

For 1,000 years, the knights have protected the kingdom, holding the monsters at bay just outside the city walls. Little do they know, a monster has just slipped inside. Her name is Nimona, and she’s there to offer her services to Public Enemy #1: Ballister Boldheart, a would-be knight who just murdered the queen at his knighting ceremony. Nimona is of the opinion that every good villain needs a sidekick, but there’s a hitch—Ballister insists he didn’t do it.

Let’s start with the animation, which is colorful, off the wall, and packed with personality. I love the science fantasy look of the kingdom, a technologically advanced society that still maintains its medieval roots. Nimona’s shapeshifting is really well done, and it’s great to watch her change forms in rapid succession, from ostrich to mouse to whale in the blink of an eye. The character designs are great, and the dialogue largely falls away altogether for an emotional sequence in the run-up to the dramatic third act.

The characters here are wonderfully well-crafted. At the heart of the story are Nimona, the acerbic lonely girl who’s been branded a monster, and Ballister, a man determined to do what’s right after the entire kingdom loses faith in him. Their dynamic is a delight from start to finish. I love Balllister’s exasperation and dismay as he repeatedly turns down her pitches to kill and/or maim all his enemies, and I like seeing how Nimona gradually gets under Ballister’s skin, challenging everything he thinks he knows about monsters despite having never met one before. We also get the Director, who runs the knights’ academy, and Ambrosius Goldenloin, Ballister’s boyfriend and newly anointed knight in charge of tracking down the queen’s murderer. The supporting characters who surround these four flesh out the world they inhabit, keeping things fast and funny while also having something valuable to say.

I love how the film explores the lives of the misunderstood. Even before Ballister is named the queen’s killer, he was a subject of much debate within the kingdom, the first commoner to train in the academy: was he proof that anyone can serve the kingdom if they work hard enough, or a dangerous break from tradition that will jeopardize people’s safety? When it looks as though he’s murdered the queen, there are those who find their suspicions vindicated. And yet, as desperate as Ballister is to clear his name and change people’s perceptions of him, it’s incredibly hard for him to see through all the rhetoric he’s been taught about monsters. Nimona certainly doesn’t make things easy in that department, as she’s embraced the role that the public has given her, but she also keeps at Ballister, not letting his “small-minded” attitudes pass uncontested. Over the course of the film, it’s wonderful to watch their dynamic shift and grow. I also like that we see a lot of diversity across the movie, including BIPOC, LGBTQ, and disabled characters (though I should mention that Ballister, who has a prosthetic arm, is voiced by a nondisabled actor.)

Chloë Grace Moretz just kills it as Nimona. There’s a bit of Hit-Girl energy here, wrapped up in an energetic punk persona that conceals vulnerability beneath the jokes and mayhem. Riz Ahmed does a bang-up job as Ballister, a guy who’s facing a reckoning of his entire worldview on what’s presumably the worst day of his life. He serves as a good straight man opposite Moretz, while also being plenty funny on his own and bringing some great heart. Frances Conroy is effective as the Director, and Eugene Lee Yang does nice work as the conflicted golden boy Ambrosius. The film also features the voices of Beck Bennett, Lorraine Toussaint, RuPaul, and Indya Moore.

Warnings

Violence, mild language, some gross-out humor, implied drinking, thematic elements (including suicidal ideation,) and a disabled character voiced by a nondisabled actor.