The story potential itself was beautiful and they completely wasted it. As the Autistic character himself is in fact Autistic, I didn't judge him on his acting...but if he had good director, a better script, a better coach, a better acting cast and a better editor - his character would've come across more beautifully. Because, he is in fact, a beautiful person and the movie totally missed the potential of exploring his mind in the film.
The cinematography, the acting (from other actors), the score...just awful. It was painful to watch. And as an Autistic surrealist professional artist, I saw so much more that could've been done. It could've been like Eternal Sunshine meets What Dreams May Come. The location was too bland. Whoever the scouts were didn't do a good job. Should've picked the Northwest, Montana, or the high desert (totally different than lower desert). I lived in the desert, and while it's beautiful, you can only handle so many brown colors and rocks.
Professional filmmakers know how to make the desert brilliant without boring the viewer.
Tent Rocks in NM would've been an easy drive and an amazing surrealistic place to film for interesting rocks to lay out as a surrealistic landscape. I get the low budget, but the people who made this just didn't see far enough into what it could've been and it's really unfortunate.
And why was the sister obsessively being shot checking her makeup and herself in the mirror in the truck? Were they just trying to fill in time?
Why did the sister say "when I get gas" when the truck already had gas?
I think these guys spent all their money on the CGI in the first 5 minutes of the film and on the art scenes and then failed the rest.
The beginning scene and the art scenes were the only good parts because it wasn't messed up with horrible actors and music.
Stop giving this film 10 stars just because it's about an Autistic young adult. It failed.
- An Adult on the Spectrum.
