Director: Tony Goldwyn
Writer: Tony Spiridakis
Stars: Bobby Cannavale, Rose Byrne, Vera Farmiga
Synopsis: Comedian Max co-parents autistic son Ezra with ex-wife Jenna. Faced with crucial decisions about Ezra’s future, Max and Ezra go on a life-changing cross-country road trip.
As a neurodivergent person, I find myself relating to people I am not supposed to relate to in films.
I rarely find myself properly represented, and it frustrates me how definitions, symptoms, diagnoses, and tics intertwine when screenwriters are trying to get it. It’s not every day that I find Mozart and the Whale, one of the few films that captured the magic and the scary existence of being a neurodivergent woman on screen. But since every neurodivergent person existing on the spectrum is different from one another, it’s not my position to accurately analyze how autism is depicted on screen and whether the film honored the characters or not.
Ezra is a film about a stand-up comedian (Bobby Cannavale) mid-divorce, co-parenting his autistic son (William A. Fitzgerald) and living with his father (Robert DeNiro). He is coming to terms with how he raises his son, getting over separation from his wife (Rose Byrne), whom he adores, while giving his son the freedom and liberty to exist and go beyond what the world perceives of him, something that other people may find problematic at times.
The film is based on writer and director Tony Spiridakis’ relationship with his autistic son, which makes for authentic storytelling but lacks enough compelling elements to appeal to a wider audience.
The fact that the film is promoted as starring an autistic actor is not a reason to celebrate for me. How many actors are neurodivergent but unwilling to admit it? What are the different types of autism and how do we know who belongs to which? Generally speaking, neurodivergence comes in varying grades of characteristic representations. Multiple people are not diagnosed until later in age (me!), and sometimes people even live and die without knowing who they truly are. People exist on the spectrum for a reason. Other neurodivergent people, unfortunately, self-diagnose celebrities and athletes based on their diagnoses, and some people in the public eye are forced to hide their truths for fear of stereotypes, the ableist culture, or being pigeonholed to a specific role, an existence of oddity that doesn’t promise much in real life.
As a high-functioning neurodivergent person, it has taken me a lot to get diagnosed, admit it, and even talk to my friends about it. As far as some of the struggles I’ve seen of people dealing with other neurodivergent friends or family members, I like the angle this film is going for. I love Bobby Cannavale and have loved him since Sex and the City and The Station Agent. To see one of my favorite actors take on the role of the caregiver like a pro has made me enjoy the film even further. There’s nothing like a parent who allows their child to be their true self and encourages authentic behavior beyond what is expected of a certain someone during a particular age. “He’s not like the other kids,” that’s what most parents would hear about their neurodivergent kids. While some might go down the road of forcing their kids into a so-called existence of conformity, others like Max (and my mom) and people I’ve known prefer to give complete freedom and high levels of self-expression.
However, this film struggles to find footing. Between being an endearing family drama/road trip movie, it is also a narrative that features a neurodivergent character at the heart of the storytelling. Greedy as this sounds, I might have wanted to see more of Ezra than his bickering parents, but if that states anything, we need more films that positively depict neurodivergent characters on screen.
If anything, Ezra should have been a bigger release, a more solid and compelling script, a better platform to open a conversation on neurodivergence, existing on the spectrum, and an ableist culture that forces people into silence and shame rather than allowing them the pride to exist as they are, not as the world wants them to be.
