Review of Dina a Real Life Romantic Comedy
We don't know how to talk about people with autism. In part, considering it's a diagnosis both underrepresented and misrepresented in mainstream media. Popular representations usually depict autism as either a series of bad-mannered physical tics or equally a superpower that lends a person heightened senses. Potent, nuanced portrayals of autism are basically not-existent. Dina , the new documentary from Antonio Santini and Dan Sickles about a couple with autism, is a welcome feature to the autism canon that takes an observational approach, fugitive a forced narrative about the diagnosis.
The picture show follows Dina and Scott, two center-aged people with autism who are engaged to be married. Dina plays out with the traditional trajectory of a romantic one-act, but is framed through static cinematography and driven by the titular character'due south wonderful sense of humor also equally the inadvertent one-act and drama of everyday life. It'due south a weird alchemy of Yasujiro Ozu's family comedies and something like Schultze Gets The Blues .
The two go about their daily life while we watch. Scott goes to his job at Wal-Mart, Dina has lunch dates with her mother, the couple go along day-trips together, they watch Sexual activity And The City , visit Scott's parents, etc. We're just watching their mundane routines. And and so they become married.
Dina and the Rom Com Formula
Because I had heard Dina referred to as a romantic comedy in documentary form, I wondered how the film would construct conflict. The traditional romantic one-act formula requires a tumultuous second act, where the couple accept to navigate a conflict that tests the strength of their relationship. I wasn't sure how Dina was going to convincingly arroyo this necessary hurdle, or if they would eschew it altogether. Just then Dina approaches Scott about their nonexistent sexual connection. She starts by broaching the subject subtly, by purchasing Scott The Joy of Sex . She knows Scott's lack of physical initiative comes from bones inexperience, then she'southward trying to gently educate him.
This is the beauty of Dina — watching them communicate, both together and with their friends and family. They're impulsively honest, and when the 2 of them talk near their sexuality, not merely are they honest, simply they're graceful with each other. They're trying to figure out how to be better for 1 another, and the compassion they lend each other is bound to be the virtually heartening thing plant in a pic this year.
Not only does this ongoing conflict allow Dina to seamlessly adhere to the rom com formula nosotros're familiar with, simply it actually ends up being a refined roadmap for the rom com genre. The fundamental conflict shouldn't be a rote hurdle for screenwriters to discover a way over, but rather a natural problem that attempts to conductor growth and a deeper understanding of each other.
Not a Film About Autism
But being able to scout this communication between Dina and Scott is a great example of a film showing a neurotypical audience something about autism without existence didactic about the entirety of the diagnosis. This is a testament to Santini and Sickles' observational approach. For the better part of vii years, I had the opportunity to work with people who share Dina and Scott's diagnosis.
During orientation for one of the agencies I worked for, a speaker stressed that their clients aren't autistic, but that they take autism. This small semantical difference was an like shooting fish in a barrel fashion to respect this population as something more than their diagnosis. Autism isn't their dominant identifier, and we should act accordingly. Through its observationalism, Dina tacitly reaffirms this conventionalities. The motion-picture show isn't well-nigh autism, but almost two people with autism who are in love.
Dina is also quite funny in its observations. There aren't any punchlines, but there's an overwhelming joy to be had from scenes like watching Scott run across the Wal-Mart parking lot earlier and subsequently piece of work. And there'southward plenty of laughs born out of awkward social situations — a symptom of the subjects' impulsive honesty. Santini and Sickles are likewise interested in the humor of mundanity. Some of the funniest stuff in Dina is just watching her and Scott watch Goggle box.
Going into a picture similar this, I have skepticism, a fear that it might veer off into fetishization, patronizing its subjects for pity or laughter. Just Dina is too interested in the distinct agency of Dina and Scott — information technology cares too much most who they are as individuals to undermine that with condescending letters virtually autism. At its nigh base level, Dina works considering it offers me a run a risk to spend time with people who sympathize the globe differently than I do, not because it teaches me a lesson about their diagnosis.
For Your Consideration: Dina
Concluding year'southward documentary about a kid with autism, Life, Animated , was a very surface-level expect at some of the proclivities of this population. That film got an Oscar nomination despite being much more than a glorified orientation video or Dateline segment. I would love to see Dina get a similar reception from the AMPAS during the upcoming awards flavour. That we don't demand to foreground autism in representations of people with that diagnosis is a message that could use some heightened awareness.
I would exist remiss if I didn't mention Dina has a major wing in the ointment. In the final deed, Dina and Scott are sitting on a demote discussing their issues with physical intimacy. Frustrated, Dina can't help just uncertainty whether he really likes her or not. With touching conviction, Scott tells her how strong of a person he thinks she is. He brings up an incident from Dina's past, when her offset husband stabbed her multiple times before calling 9-1-ane.
Scott can't believe she made it through such a devastating experience. The couple walk out of frame, and while the camera stays on the demote, the bodily audio of that 9-i-1 telephone call plays in its entirety. Information technology's a very bewildering and distasteful move that drastically changes the movie'due south tone for no discernible reason. Thankfully, this moment is overshadowed by the rest of the film's beauty.
Did you find Dina equally mannerly as I did? Let me know in the comments.
Dina is currently in select theaters in both the United states and Britain, for the release dates in your country run across hither.
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Source: https://www.filminquiry.com/dina-2017-review/
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