Music, or Why Sia Shouldn't Quit Her Day Job

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Sia. She's known for her great vocal range, her crazy wigs, and her catchy tunes. Her songs have been loved by many people worldwide. But in 2017, she decided to make a film. The result, released 4 years later, was 2021's musical-drama film Music.

The film was produced by Sia, written by Sia, and directed by Sia, with screenplay by Sia. This is Tommy Wiseau levels of narcissism.

This film is about a girl named Music (played by Maddie Ziegler), who is on the Autism spectrum. She is being cared for by a former drug dealer named Kazu Zu (played by Kate Hudson), and a man named Ebo, who is Kazu's neighbor, since her grandmother passed.

So what are the bad things about this film? There are so many things wrong here

1. Casting Maddie Ziegler to play Music.

If you don't know who Maddie is, she was a former contestant on Dance Moms, a show I don't really care for. Sia saw great interest in her dancing, and decided to be like a mother figure to her. Sia later said that Ziegler would be in everything she produces. Nepotism at its finest, amirite?

2. The characterization of Music's autism

As a young man on the spectrum myself, I would have to agree with other people's takes on the portrayal of Music's autism. It's like they took attributes of different forms and amalgamated them into a random mishmash of spasms and tics. And a rumor about this film's production is that in order to understand Autism better, Sia and the production crew watched videos of autistic children having meltdowns, recorded by their parents and uploaded to YouTube!! You have GOT to be kidding me! 

3. Visual Techniques

This film contains rapid strobe lights, bright colors, and loud blaring songs. This trio of things are known to cause Sensory overload to some autistic people.

4. Promotes Dangerous Restraint Techniques

This film also features disturbing scenes of Kazu and Ebo restraining Music, using the Supine and prone restraint techniques, which have been proven to be lethal, and has been considered a human rights violation. Ebo even calls it "crushing [Music] with [his] love". How is restraining someone like that considered "love" at all?! 

Sia's theatrical ventures [this film and Cats (2018)] have proven that Sia should just stick to her status as a musician. Heck, Cats was received BETTER than Music! How in the wide world of sports is that possible?! 

I'd give this film 0 stars, because as an autistic young man myself, this film just feels like a giant middle finger to people like me.

If I were to watch anything with an autistic lead, I'd watch The Good Doctor, since it is a really great series, and shows an young autistic man that is skilled at surgery. It shows how he thinks, and the actor portraying him speaks in a soft-spoken, shy-sounding voice, much like most people on the spectrum. From the way he thinks, I can tell he's higher up on the spectrum, in terms of functioning level. In my opinion, you should tell what level they are on in the spectrum by the lines, and not by offensive caricature-style movement.

Thanks for reading my review!