Imagine (2012)

Imagine

**

This indie film came out in 2012, a French-Polish-Portuguese co-production written and directed by Andrezj Jakimowski. It's about a maverick teacher at an ophthalmology clinic in Portugal who wants to teach the patients there to use echolocation rather than a cane to get around.

Ugh, where to start on this one..... I found watching this film an intensely frustrating experience. On the one hand, the sound design and cinematography are stunning--so beautiful and thoughtful about representing the blind experience. And almost all the secondary characters are played by blind people. But on the other hand, the plot (such as it is) is ludicrously inaccurate and insulting both to blind people and their teachers. And true to the art-house style, nothing much happens. It's unbearably slow and the ending is inconclusive.

A title at the very beginning dedicates the film to Ben Underwood, the teenager who was briefly famous for using echolocation. But it seems Jakimowski did little more than watch a 10 minute TV special on Underwood and created the rest of the story without any sort of research or mundane, boring realism. Yes, echolocation is a real thing and some blind people can do it, even to the extent of not using a cane. Underwood wasn't the only one; there are records of people doing this for hundreds of years. And yes, it probably could be taught more systematically.

But the way it's handled in this film is utterly ridiculous. Rather than a thoughtful look at real issues facing blind people, the plot relies entirely on the hackneyed trope of the crazy, rule breaking teacher who actually wants to help the kids, man, versus the stuffy, hidebound professor who is only interested in safety and breaking the kids' spirits.

And what kind of place is this, anyway? Set in a monastery in Portugal, it's repeatedly referred to as a clinic, not a school, and the kids are called patients, not students. It's a random collection of blind people from very young kids to adults, and from random countries all mixed up for no apparent reason. They aren't given medical treatment or taught anything. They seem to spend most of their time sitting around inside doing nothing, waiting for a doctor who never talks to them, and they are forbidden from going outside the walls without an army of helpers. There are also other random sighted people living there (including a monk). Even the very first schools for the blind in Europe and America over 150 years ago were better set up than this, and had more progressive ideas about education for the blind.

So maverick teacher Ian (Edward Hogg) tries to shake things up, but his lessons mostly consist of sitting around the courtyard outside and sitting around doing nothing inside, only occasionally practicing pouring water into a glass. "It's hard," he intones tragically, as the children spill the water everywhere. Really? I imagine the blind kids in that scene were embarrassed to pretend to be so incompetent on camera, especially the smart-ass British girl. She would have been awesome in Harry Potter, but that's another story.

Of course Ian and his love interest Eva (played by German actress Alexandra Maria Lara) are played by AB actors faking it. And while the students are all played by blind kids, it's telling that almost none of them have names, personalities or back stories. The camera lingers voyeuristically over their faces as they move dramatically from shadow to light (hello cliche!) but ultimately they're just symbols, not real people. The only exception is an older student played by Melchior Derouet, an awesome French actor who is really blind. He is just as talented as the leads, and far more interesting to watch. The film (or parts of it anyway) is worth watching just for him.

The other really insulting thing is the way Ian is so against using a cane. This is inane ableism at its worst, the idea that using a piece of adaptive equipment you actually need makes you a cripple and a target of ridicule, like you're giving in to the disability. I see this in a lot of misinformed novels about SCI, where the main character does everything he can not to "give in" to the wheelchair in a triumph of the spirit. Sorry, real life does not work that way. Yes, there are some blind people who don't use canes, but to have the main theme of the movie that the kids should throw away their canes in order to be free is ridiculous.

The teacher Ian clashes both with the head doctor who thinks his no-cane method is dangerous, and with the students/patients who think he is faking or lying to them. But despite this ready-made conflict, the plot never goes anywhere. At first the atmospheric scenes are nice, but they just meander on forever. None of the characters' motives are clear either; the characterization is as indistinct as the plot.

Now I am the kind of obsessive dev who will watch hours of Orientation and Mobility videos on YouTube, but even I was bored with this movie by about halfway through, and it's only an hour and forty minutes. This was such a wasted opportunity. I'm still waiting for a movie with an actual blind actor in the main role and that is more than just a bundle of centuries old cliches and misconceptions.

Morgan (2012)

Written by: Sandon Berg and Michael Akers

Directed by: Michael Akers

Film Distributor: United Gay Network

Starring:

Leo Minaya as Morgan Oliver

Jack Kesy as Dean Kagen

Supporting Cast:

Madalyn McKay as Peg Oliver

Darra ‘Like Dat’ Boyd as Lane Williams

Benjamin Budd as Wesley Blake

Theodore Bouloukos as Dr. Thomas

Dane Anton as Physical Therapist

Official Film Trailer:

Synopsis

Morgan Oliver is recently paraplegic, T-10 incomplete, as a result of a bicycle accident during a race he was competing in. He has recently returned home from rehab and he’s now unemployed and living on disability, adjusting to his new life and the new adaptive setup in his apartment. His preferred way to pass the time is drinking beer and watching television, and the main events of the film begin when he runs out of beer and neither his mother, Peg, nor his best friend, Lane, will enable him any further. They refuse to buy him more beer, forcing him to leave the house on his own. It is during his trip out to replenish his beer supplies that he meets Dean Kagen, which is where our romance begins.  The dialogue seems a bit forced at first, but it gets more natural as the film progresses. 

The drama unfolds once Morgan decides he wants to compete in the wheelchair division of the very same race that cost him his ability to walk, where Morgan, because of his hyper-competitive nature, caused an accident involving himself and two other competitors on a very dangerous part of the course. This same hyper-competitive nature leads to his doing things he ought not to be doing and refusing to listen to reason from Dean, his doctor, or anyone else.

This film is a journey for Morgan where he must confront his past and his present, and he must find a way to learn from his mistakes and move forward. This is also, to a lesser extent, a journey for Dean in finding a new way to live following the death of his mother. But most of all, it is a romance featuring a paraplegic romantic lead, which is something that is very rare to find. And better yet, it is a romance that delves into the issue of disabled sexuality, which we almost never see on film. And Morgan is pretty cute, too, so that helps.

Fanvid by JJstrikesback1:



So how does it fare with regard to portrayal of a disabled character and disabled sexuality?

This is a male/male romance, but it is not a coming out story; rather, the central focus of the story is Morgan’s disability. The film addresses both the disability and the romance from a variety of angles and is, I think, one of the most comprehensive films I’ve seen with regard to disability and romance. It’s a low budget film with acting that could be better, but the writing/directing/production team of Michael Akers and Sandon Berg, as well as Leo Minaya, who played the title character, Morgan, did quite a lot of research in preparation for this film (though there are certainly some important gaps). Leo Minaya is not paraplegic himself, and this was a deliberate casting decision on behalf of the filmmakers because the film originally was going to contain scenes of Morgan before his accident which ended up being cut from the final version of the film. I think that things like Photoshop and body doubles could get around the reasons they cited for hiring a non-disabled actor instead of a disabled one, but the actor they cast was very dedicated to portraying the reality of Morgan’s paralysis. There was a scene early on in the film where Dean helps Morgan with his leg exercises, and the director had instructed Leo Minaya to keep his leg up during the scene after Dean let go of it, and Mr. Minaya insisted that this would be impossible for Morgan to do and he made sure that the film reflected this. There was another particular scene that was very physically intense, and in the commentary, the filmmakers point out multiple times that Leo Minaya refused to use his legs to help him with this very difficult scene, insisting on pulling himself back up and over the wall using only his arms. A lot of actors, particularly in low budget indie films, might not have this kind of dedication to the role they were playing, and so although I think a paraplegic actor would have been preferable, Leo MInaya did a great job of being Morgan. Leo Minaya and Jack Kesy are not gay in real life, either, but they managed to do a great job with that aspect of their roles, as well.

There are three areas where I think the film suffered from the decision not to use a paraplegic actor –

· First, in simple physical realism. Morgan had a lot of muscle tone, and even for a guy less than a year post injury who is still actively doing physical therapy, there are just some things you can’t fake, and the appearance of a paraplegic’s legs and abdomen is one of them. There were two scenes in particular where abdominal strength and control were slightly unrealistic. The first is a scene where he’s in the shower on a shower chair and not using either of his arms to maintain his balance or keep from falling or sliding down. The second is that there are a couple of scenes where he’s doing sit-ups, and I just don’t think that a T-10 paraplegic would be able to move the specific muscle combination necessary to do those particular exercises.

· The second area the film suffered from not casting a paraplegic actor is, of course, realism regarding bladder and bowel issues. That’s something that is not touched on even one single time in the film, and Morgan doesn’t seem to use a catheter or go to the bathroom for anything other than a shower, ever. Men I’ve known with SCI have always gone to the bathroom to sort everything that needs to be sorted before coming to the bed and being intimate, and I think it’s pretty standard to have at least one conversation about bladder and bowel issues at some point in the relationship. This just wasn’t a feature in the film, but it’s something that really can’t be ignored in an intimate relationship with someone who is paraplegic. I think this would have been very different had they used a paraplegic actor in the role.

· And following from that, the third area where I think the film suffered from not using a paraplegic actor was that, although they did significantly address Morgan’s erectile dysfunction, one thing they forgot about was making sure he took his little blue pills before having sex with Dean, and also, for that matter, addressing whether and how much he could feel, as an incomplete paraplegic, when having sex. Also, sex with a paraplegic guy is not a spontaneous act. It requires preparation. And also, I would have been really curious to see how they actually figured out the right positions and the best way to do things for both of them, which wasn’t really spelled out. There were one or two great conversations before they became sexually active that addressed Morgan’s erectile dysfunction and Dean’s openness to figuring things out as they went along, but nothing at the time they finally did have sex for the first time or any time after that. Also, there is a single scene in the film where, during sex, they show the scar as Dean runs his arm down Morgan’s back, and it’s not quite the Joel Brown “Personal Rockstar” video, but it is sensual and shows that they are making an effort to show this aspect of Morgan’s disability. However, I think that the film would have been more realistic in this regard if the actor playing Morgan had been paraplegic himself.

Other than these areas, though, I think that the research the writers did paid off, and you really can tell that they did their homework. Also, they made Morgan and Dean both into well-rounded characters with flaws and quirks and issues that are not related to Morgan’s disability. Morgan is hyper-competitive, afraid of public displays of affection, bad with money, and drinks a bit too much. The writers say that the overarching theme for understanding Morgan’s issues is his issue with his own masculinity that dates back to when he was about 12 years old and his father left the family not long after finding out that Morgan was gay. Dean has just gone through a long period of caring for an ailing mother who has recently died, and he never came out to her when she was alive and is still getting the hang of being an out gay man. Their conflicts come not from Morgan’s disability but from his character flaws, and Dean is quite comfortable with Morgan’s disability from the very beginning. This is also not a coming out film, although Dean is more recently out than Morgan. This is a romance between two men whose major conflict is over Morgan’s hyper-competitiveness rather than his disability. The romance is complex and grows organically, and their relationship is multi-faceted and fairly realistic. Having watched not only the film, but also the deleted scenes, the Behind the Scenes Featurette, and the commentary, I’ve gotten to be quite familiar with the filmmakers’ thought processes as well as with the characters and the film itself, and I really think the filmmakers and the cast did an outstanding job at accomplishing this, despite my continued belief that the role would have been even better with a paraplegic actor.

Ironically, the writers got the idea for the film itself from a paraplegic actor who auditioned for another film they did together, who was kind enough to sit down with them and really talk about issues of being gay and paraplegic and dating, sex, etc. During their conversation, they even touched on the topic of guys who wanted to be with someone who they perceived as “needing” them and guys with a “wheelchair fetish”. Later on during the preparation for the film, they went to a disabled dating site and talked with two paraplegic men they connected with on there about their experiences and preferences when dating and their issues with sexuality. Perhaps this is why I have such an issue with the fact that they went with a non-paraplegic actor, but really, they did do their research, and Leo Minaya did work very hard to ensure as much authenticity as possible in his portrayal of Morgan Oliver.

Young Adult

Dev Rating: ***

The movie Young Adult with Charlize Theron was not at all what I was expecting.

 Being about a YA author, I thought it would be zany and fun, an upbeat comedy. It came up on Netflix and I watched it last night, discovering that it was anything but upbeat. It's actually very difficult to watch.

The main character is struggling with depression and her behavior can be very difficult to empathize with. The only thing that kept me watching was discovering a character played by Patton Oswald who has a disability.

The story is that Mavis leaves the big city of Minneapolis to go back home to Mercury, Minosota when she sees her ex-boyfriend's announcement that he and his wife have had a baby. Mavis becomes convinced that Buddy, her ex, is trapped in his marriage and would want to escape with her. When she arrives, she bumps into someone else she went to high school with, Matt. She doesn't remember him, even though his locker was next to hers, because she was a cool kid. Her memory is triggered when she realizes that he is "the hate crime guy." Meaning that Matt had been attacked and brutally beaten by other kids at the school because they thought he was gay. He says because he actually isn't gay, it turns out it wasn't a hate crime. But his legs were damaged beyond repair and he walks with one forearm crutch. Mavis gets drunk and tells him her plan to get Buddy away from his wife. Matt tries to talk her out of it, but she is entirely delusional. Throughout the movie, Matt and Mavis start to become friends since he's the only one who is seeing the real her.

I found his character to be deeply moving. The crutch was not something that he just carried around for its metaphorical value to the movie. He really does move with it. He has the insight that Mavis lacks and she is not able to see it when she hurts him. I was really surprised by how sensual and sexy I found him to be.

 There's a rather hilarious scene when they bump into Mavis's cousin who is a paraplegic and the "happiest cripple in town" according to Matt. The guy is cheerful and upbeat, telling them about his wife, his kids, his rock climbing, and how he and Matt were "rebooted for extra positivity."

 Overall, though, it is a really sad movie. It ended on a note of hope, but not nearly the happy ending that this American viewer loves! It left me feeling bleak. Still, it was totally worth watching for Oswald's performance. I never would have expected to find him sexy, but he really was. Just make sure you have someone nearby to cuddle with when it's over.

The Masseurs and a Woman/My Darling of the Mountains

The Masseurs and a Woman:
****

Japan, 1938, by Shimizu Hiroshi, one of Japan's top directors. Set in a hot spring resort in the mountains, among a group of blind masseurs. One of them, Toku, falls in love with a beautiful young woman from Tokyo who comes to visit the hot springs. But can she return his love? This is a beautiful, charming film, and the actor who plays Toku gives one of the best, and most convincing portrayals of blindness in film. And it's available on DVD with English subtitles.

My Darling of the Mountains:
****

A 2008 remake of the Masseurs and a Woman. Shot for shot, it's almost identical to the original, except in color. Maybe not quite as outstanding as the original, but still a beautiful, touching film. It hasn't been released on DVD in the US, but it's worth searching out a subtitled copy.

Both the original and the remake are highly recommended!

Proof

Proof

Australia, 1991

****


This is an older film, but worth searching out. Martin is an insecure blind man, who so distrusts the world around him that he takes photos of everything around him as proof. He enlists Andy, a young waiter, to describe the photos to him. But when Andy falls for Celia, Martin's housekeeper, he finds he can't always be truthful to Martin. And Celia seems bent on seducing Martin, in her own strange way. This is a dark, cynical movie, not really a romance, but still very intriguing.

Some people have complained that this was a negative portrayal of disability. It's true that Martin is seriously dysfunctional, but so are the other characters. They're not meant to be role models. Devo Girl got a big devo thrill from this, especially the scenes where Celia comes on to Martin.

Starring very young Hugo Weaving and Russell Crowe!

Love and Honor

Love and Honor

2006, Japan

dir. Yamada Yoji

****

Japanese superstar Kimura Tatsuya plays a low-ranking samurai Shinnojo, employed as a food-taster for his feudal lord. One day, he suffers food poisoning from some bad shellfish, which leaves him blind. Fearing that Shinnojo will lose his salary, his wife Kayo agrees to a dubious offer from a higher ranking official. Is she being unfaithful or trying to help Shinnojo? How can Shinnojo defend her honor? Can he maintain his honor as a samurai, and fight a duel, even blind? Less action than the Zatoichi series, but a far more realistic portrayal of blindness. Highly recommended!

Music Within

Music Within
2007, USA
dir. Steven Sawalich

***

Biopic based on the true story of Richard Pimentel, who lost much of his hearing as a soldier in Vietnam, then became an activist for the disabled, and helped to pass the Americans with Disabilities Act. As a movie, it's really good, and shows an interesting aspect of disabled advocacy in the US in the 1970s and 80s.

Dev level is moderate. Pimentel is hard of hearing, not totally deaf, and he never uses sign language. He becomes close friends with a guy named Art who has severe cerebral palsy. Because Art speaks so low and slowly, Pimentel can hear him perfectly, and they become a kind of odd couple. Art is the one who pushes him to become an activist, and they scenes with them causing trouble in public are great.

There's also an extra on the DVD of the real Pimentel giving a speech, which is actually more interesting and hilarious than the movie. As usual, truth is more entertaining than fiction, but it's still a good movie.

A Scene at the Sea

A Scene at the Sea
1992, Japan
dir. Kitano Takeshi

NO STARS

A deaf guy who lives near the ocean finds a surf board and teaches himself to surf, while his deaf girlfriend sits on the beach and watches him. That's it, that's pretty much all that happens, until the last scene which indulges ridiculously in sudden tragedy.

Art-house darling director Kitano is obsessed with still, silent compositions where nothing much happens, and with elliptical cuts that leave out the key moments of the action. He does this in all his films, but this one is by far the most egregious example. But what bothered me the most was the portrayal of deaf characters. Kitano is not interested in dialog, as can be seen by the improvised, inconsequential dialog of the few characters who talk, and also the way he favors shooting from very far away. You get the feeling he really wanted to shoot a completely silent film. Ok, that might have been interesting as an artistic experiment. But using deaf characters as a shorthand for a world of silence is dishonest. The characters come across as completely one-dimensional and boring: they don't communicate at all, even with each other, and never show any facial expression. The film uses the deaf characters symbolically, rather than showing their lives realistically. The story itself is understated to the point of irrelevance. There are interminable scenes of guys surfing, all shot from the shore in the most unimaginative way, and lots and lots of scenes of people walking. Other, better Japanese directors know how to create pathos with these long takes, but here there's literally nothing going on. And the ending--huh? It's hard to feel anything when all the characters are kept at such a distance.

Quid Pro Quo

USA

2008

***

Quid Pro Quo tells the story of a paraplegic radio reporter Isaac Knot (Nick Stahl) who receives a tip about a local group of wannabes and pretenders.  He discovers that the tipster is a woman named Fiona (Vera Farmiga), who, with Isaac’s accompaniment, finally realizes her dream of being a wheelchair pretender. 

Isaac is a sexy wheeler and you likely won’t be disappointed by the sight of him wheeling around the city, and the character earns our sympathy when he gets stood up on a blind date by a woman who didn’t realize she was being set up with a disabled man.  Unfortunately, Fiona’s portrayal of a pretender didn’t seem entirely realistic to me, but at least the movie didn’t make pretenders seem evil… just hopelessly kooky. 

The movie could have been a solid dev film, but a ridiculous ending involving “magic shoes” ruined it.  But it still deserves three stars for the very appealing image of Isaac in a wheelchair.

Freak City

Freak City
USA 1999 ***

It's about a rebellious young woman who is put against her will in an institution, and about the people with various disabilities she meets there. Her roommate, played by Marlee Matlin, is developmentally disabled. The main character falls in love with a young man who is a quadriplegic (played by Peter Sarsgaard), and while Devo Girl was not so happy with the ending, overall it's a very sensitive portrayal of disability, and even darkly funny in many places. Jonathan Silverman also plays a blind guy living in the same institution.

Sadly, this film has not yet been released on DVD, but you can buy VHS copies online.

Murderball

Murderball
USA
2005
****

Documentary about quad rugby. Devo Girl really really loved this one when it first came out. It's a very realistic look at both the sport and the lives of some of the players. This one has also been discussed extensively on PD:

http://paradevo.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=general&action=display&thread=248

http://paradevo.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=general&action=display&thread=347

http://paradevo.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=general&action=display&thread=587

Avatar

Avatar

Ok, this one doesn't really need a review. This film was such a huge hit, I can't imagine anyone hasn't heard of it. There has been extensive discussion on PD, and more is always welcomed. Here are a few threads:

http://paradevo.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=general&action=display&thread=2372

http://paradevo.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=devs&action=display&thread=2374

There was also a book club selection that was a fanfic of Avatar:
http://paradevo.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=devs&action=display&thread=2568

Gattaca

Gattaca   USA   1997   ***

This is actually a great sci fi movie, and on a more objective scale would get more stars, but its devotee appeal is mixed. The movie is set in the not-too-distant future, when DNA testing has become so advanced that doctors can tell everything about a person’s physical and mental potential just by their genes. In a world where every baby is genetically engineered for perfection, and job applicants are screened by their genes, our hero Vincent (Ethan Hawke) is an outcast whose defective genes relegate him to  a life of menial labor. Convinced that he is just as good as anyone else, and obsessed with becoming an astronaut, he buys the identity of a man with better genes and fakes his way into Gattaca, the company that will send him into outer space.  The man whose identity he buys is Jerome (Jude Law), whose perfect genes once made him a success, but who lost it all after he became a paraplegic. Now Devo Girl finds this very disturbing. The idea that genetics could determine how our whole society is set up is a scary one, and becoming more plausible every day, and of course the first to lose out in such a society would be those born with disabilities. The whole moral of the movie is that a person is more than just his physical potential, and even though Vincent is physically disadvantaged because he has a heart condition, he is still able to do as much as anyone else. But then we have Jerome, who becomes totally useless as a human being because he can’t walk. Is this because Jerome still believes that he must have a perfect body in order to live a meaningful life? Or would the movie have us believe there is a fundamental difference between an invisible disability such as a heart condition, and an all too visible SCI? The fact is that Jerome is angry, embittered and not very likeable. But ethical questions aside, it’s worth the price of admission just to see hunky Jude Law fling himself out of his chair and drag himself up a flight of stairs. Uma Thurman also appears as the love interest (for Vincent of course--damn, she went for the wrong guy!)

Breaking the Waves

Breaking the Waves   Denmark   1996   no stars

Directed by art-house darling Lars von Trier, so already you know it’s going to be more painful than entertaining. Bess (Emily Watson) is a simple-minded girl living in a tiny town in the north of Scotland. She falls in madly in love and marries Jan (Stellan Skarsgard) who has come to the town to work on an offshore oil rig. Shortly after they are married, he breaks his neck on the job. Medical care in the tiny town is limited so he spends the rest of the movie in bed, clinging to life. Bess is of course convinced he will recover, and nurses him herself. She doesn’t seem to notice that the combination of a head injury and drugs has made him insane, so when he encourages her to have sex with every man she meets because he can’t have her himself, she does so. This movies is creepy and gross. It’s all about style and ideas, and nothing real about SCI. Jan’s injury is just a plot device, nothing more. Plus he’s not even attractive. Devo Girl hated it.

The Waterdance

The Waterdance   USA   1992   ***

This is an honest look at the realities of spinal cord injury. Writer and co-director Neal Jimenez himself has an SCI, and this movie is clearly based on his real life experiences. Joel (Eric Stoltz) breaks his neck while hiking, and the movie covers the time he spends in rehab. The plot is pretty predictable: he faces the difficulties of adjusting to SCI, has problems with his girlfriend Anna (Helen Hunt), we see a little bit about his roommates and their similar struggles. The characters are two dimensional and not terribly engaging. But this movie is highly recommended for those of you who have never met a real person with SCI, if only to get a small dose of reality. However, Devo Girl has one major problem with this film, and that is the weird framing device. When Joel enters the rehab center, and again when he leaves, we see a much more severely disabled boy in an electric wheelchair silently staring at him. What is the point of that? To make a distinction between ordinary people who just happen to be injured and the “real” crips, i.e., the "freaks" born disabled? Or is he silently chanting “One of us, one of us” ? Either way we find it disturbing, and totally unnecessary.

Whose Life Is It Anyway?

Whose Life Is It Anyway?
USA
1981
**

Originally a play by Brian Clark, Whose Life is it Anyway? tells the story of Ken Harrison, a sculptor played by Richard Dreyfuss (Jaws, Mr. Holland's Opus), who is paralyzed from the neck down as a result of a car accident. Ken is terribly depressed as a result of his accident and wants to end his life. Since Ken is unable to kill himself, he hires a lawyer to help him win the battle to have himself taken off life support. This part is a little different from Dreyfuss's other films, but he grows into the role and handles it very well. Unfortunately, the plot of the movie is extremely depressing. Ken doesn't learn to adjust to being a quadriplegic, but instead only thinks about dying. He never even gives it a try. If only Ken could have met someone like Devo Girl, his life may have turned out differently.

Saved!

Saved!
USA
2004
****

Aside from being a funny and creative satire about Catholic school, centering on a high school senior (Jena Malone) who becomes pregnant, this is a great devo movie. Macaulay Culkin, all grown up but still cute at age 23, plays a paraplegic student named Roland who shuns his overprotective sister and finds love (or at least lust) with the school "bad girl" Cassandra (Eva Amurri). In one scene, Roland wheels closer to Cassandra so that his foot brushes against hers, his own creative attempt at "footsie"; in another scene, he sports Cassandra's hickies on his neck. Paradevo applauds this movie for recognizing paraplegics as being sexy.

The People VS. Larry Flint

The People VS. Larry Flint
USA
1996
**

This movie tells the true story of Larry Flint (played by Woody Harrelson), the founder of the sleazy pornographic magazine Hustler. The movie includes incredible performances by Harrelson and Courtney Love (lead singer of the band Hole), who plays Flint's wife Althea. However, as a devo movie it falls flat. Flint builds an empire around his magazine Hustler as he fights for the rights given to him by the First Amendment, but his struggle is cut short when a sniper shoots him in the spine, paralyzing him from the waist down. But don't expect any scenes involving Flint dragging his paralyzed legs. Throughout most of the movie, Flint is fairly oblivious to his injury-he may as well be an AB sitting in a chair. If you want to see a great movie, The People vs. Larry Flint won't disappoint you. If you want to see a great devo movie, look elsewhere.

The Men

The Men
USA
1950
****

In Marlon Brando's first major film, he plays Bud, a paraplegic WWII veteran adjusting to his new disability in a hospital for veterans with spinal cord injuries. Bud initially feels that his life is over until his fiance Ellie (Teresa Wright) convinces him that he can still lead a full and happy life with her. Life is blissful until Ellie begins to have doubts of her own. This movie has got it all for the discerning devo. It's got the very handsome young Brando rolling around in a wheelchair, determined to stand up on his own for his wedding ceremony, even getting himself into a barroom brawl. And Jack Webb, in a supporting role, is surprisingly sexy as a sarcastic paraplegic ex-Sargeant who is taken advantage of by a pretty face.

Bone Collector

Bone Collector
USA
1999

In this gruesome film based on a book, Denzel Washington plays quadriplegic detective Lincoln Rhyme, who is drawn into solving one last crime from his bed. Lincoln enlists the help of a young female detective named Amelia, played by the sexy Angelina Jolie, and sparks fly. This movie pushes the brink of everything disturbing and disgusting, then it goes too far. If you want to see a good movie about a psycho killer, see Seven or Silence of the Lambs. If you want to see a good devo movie, this isn't worthwhile either. Denzel Washington is very sexy as always, but there's more to playing an interesting quadriplegic than lying in bed all day and not moving. For all practical purposes, Lincoln might as well have just been sick in bed. This movie just didn't give Paradevo that special devo thrill.