No Time Like the Future

You’re probably all familiar with Michael J. Fox, of Marty McFly fame. More than his acting, he’s been known lately for his activism and his foundation, the Michael J. Fox Foundation, whose goal is to help find a cure for Parkinson’s disease, which he was diagnosed with in 1991, at age 30.

My mom has been a fan of his since his Spin City days. She’s read a few of his books, and was really pushing this one on me, trying to get me to read it and review it here.

“It’s kind of written in the style you use for your blog articles…”

Okay, sounds cool.

“… only, you know, funnier and better, obviously.”

… Obviously.

Anyways, I read it, and now here is my review!

Time for an Ad Break

I’m a weirdo who still likes watching TV live, with the commercials. I’m not riveted to the screen during them, obviously, but I catch them from the corner of my eye. And one thing I’ve noticed this year is that there has been a definite increase in the number of disabled people seen in commercials. And most of those aren’t even about disability, but there are still disabled people in them, living their lives, advertising whatever the commercial is for and showing watchers that disabled people are more than their disability.

Here are some of them, mostly from Canada, of course, since that is where my TV comes from:

37 Seconds

37 Seconds is a Japanese movie I found on Netflix. It is the story of Yuma, a twenty-three-year-old manga artist with cerebral palsy. It stars Mei Kayama, an actor… with cerebral palsy!! Yuma lives with her overprotective mother and works for Sayaka, her childhood friend, now an influencer, blogger, and manga artist… publishing Yuma’s work under her name. It’s a “coming-of-age” story for this disabled woman, the tale of her creative, personal and sexual emancipation.

This is nothing like most movies about disability we see these days. For one thing, no cripping up, all the disabled characters are portrayed by disabled actors! But also, even though Yuma’s CP is quite central to the story, we are clearly shown that her disability is not all she is. We see her drawing, making phone calls, taking the bus, the train, going places, all independently, maneuvering her own electric wheelchair without help. Now, I’m told that Japan is far from the most accessible place to live, so I don’t know how realistic those situations are in the real world, but the point is we see a disabled woman living her life, rather than a disabled woman just being disabled.

Christmas Ever After

I don’t always watch cheesy romantic Christmas TV movies, but when I do, it’s because its main character is in a wheelchair and played by a disabled actress.

When I heard, a few weeks ago, that Lifetime had made a movie starring Ali Stroker (of Broadway fame), I shrieked. A Hallmark-style Christmas movie in which the main romantic character is in a wheelchair? And not only that but played by a disabled actress, so NO cripping up? No way this was a real film, I had to be dreaming.

Reader, I was not.

The Fundamentals of Caring

This film had been on my Netflix list for ages—probably since 2017, when it first came out. I decided to watch it last week, because I felt like writing up a movie review for my blog. So I read the blurb —

In this inspirational buddy comedy, a young shut-in and his caregiver take a road trip in search of landmarks, but end up finding hope and friendship.

—and confirmed that the lead actor, Craig Roberts, is not actually disabled.

Cripping up, and “inspirational” as word three of the blurb. Oh boy, I thought, I’m in for a rough inspiration-porny ride.

So I cracked my knuckles and prepared to write a scathing review…

And then didn’t. I loved the movie. Sure, it’s not perfect, has some missteps, but it was so much better than I expected!

Keep reading for my review of a film that, despite appearances, is not a rough inspiration-porny ride!

Beasts of Burden: Animal and Disability Liberation

Unless disability and animal justice are incorporated into our other movements for liberation, ableism and anthropocentrism will be left unchallenged, available for use by systems of domination and oppression.

Sunaura Taylor is an American painter, writer and activist, both in the fields of disability and of animal rights. She was born with arthrogryposis, a disability that affects her articulations (and doesn’t keep her from being a painter, writer and activist, quite the contrary!)

In this book, she shows us readers the parallels between speciesism and ableism, the similarities to be found between humans who consider animals to be worthless and able-bodied people who consider disabled people the same way. She argues that the two movements, animal liberation and disability rights, are intrinsically connected and have to move forward together. One cannot ignore the other to make its own advances, and vice versa.

While I am also an animal lover (to a lesser extent than her though—for one thing, I’m not a vegan) as well as disabled, I was not entirely sold on the idea that the two movements are, in the way she describes it, one and the same. However, I did enjoy the book (although it was difficult to read at times, as someone who does not enjoy seeing or reading about animal suffering) and learned many interesting things. Would I recommend it to others? If you’re interested in the topics, go ahead, but I won’t say it’s an essential read.

Harry Potter and the Non-Existent Disabilities, Part II

As I previously mentioned in this article, one of the things that disappointed me the most in the Harry Potter series was the absence of any disabled characters, and the absence even of any mention such people—disabled wizards—might exist.

In the books themselves, I didn’t mind that lack so much. After all, they were children’s books (at the start at least), and I’d rather there not be a disabled character than there being a token one just to look inclusive. But when JKR started expanding her whole headcanon in interviews and on Pottermore (sorry, I will never consider any of that canon), I would have liked to see her address that possibility.

Turns out she did. And I totally blocked it out after having read it the first time (probably when it was first published in 2015) because it is such a Bad Take, I preferred to stick with my own headcanon when it came to disabilities in the wizarding world.

So let us explore why I consider this such a Bad Take.

Love & Other Drugs

In 2012, I was wandering around Netflix’s (back then meagre) selection and picked a 2010 rom-com starring Anne Hathaway and Jake Gyllenhaal. In it, Jamie is a successful drug rep, navigating around hospitals and conventions, pressing Viagra into rich men’s hands. He meets Maggie, a beautiful young woman with stage 1 Parkinson’s disease. Of course, they fall in love, because otherwise it wouldn’t be a rom-com.

So I watched it, and fell in love with it. Bought the DVD, and watched it twice more in the following year, loving it even more every time.

Back in 2012, my diagnosis was just over a year old; I still walked relatively normally, and mobility aids were something I didn’t even think about. I didn’t yet consider myself disabled, and wouldn’t do so for a number of years still. Over the next few years, Netflix started producing its own stuff, my to-watch list became unmanageable, and I didn’t have the time to rewatch this movie I had loved so at a time. Until last month, when I decided to give it a go in order to write a post about it here. I was fully prepared to be disappointed, as I was now watching it as a fully disabled woman who has been disappointed by Hollywood’s portrayal of disability before.

Reader, I was not disappointed. The thing holds up!

Ni no Kuni

This is another disability-related film I found on Netflix, not so much because it was about disability but because there’s a guy in a wheelchair on the poster, and because it’s associated with Studio Ghibli. I don’t know much about anime, but I do know that Studio Ghibli films are usually amazing.

As I understand it, Ni no Kuni is originally a video game, on which the movie was based, using the same world but different characters and a new storyline. I also understand that the movie was not particularly well received by fans of the video game, but I am coming at this review purely focused on the disability side of things, not the anime aspect.

Breathe

Some time ago, looking for an interesting movie to watch on a Friday night, I typed “disability” in the Netflix search bar, and the 2017 movie Breathe came up:

After being paralyzed by polio at age 28, Robin Cavendish refuses to be immobile and with his loyal wife, Diana, becomes an advocate for the disabled.

Okay, sounds interesting, I thought. Plus, it has Claire Foy, and I like Claire Foy. Let’s go.