Something Cult, Foreign-Language or Indie #144: The Fundamentals of Caring (2016).

Paul Rudd is Ben, a retired writer. Needing new work, he takes a six-week course to become a caretaker and then is hired by single mother Elsa (Jennifer Ehle) to be an in-home carer for her teenage son Trevor (Craig Roberts), who has Duchenne muscular dystrophy. The anxious and sardonic Trevor, who was raised in England, has a fascination with American roadside attractions and therefore Ben suggests they go to see several. However, Trevor is set in his ways and refuses, and Elsa worries Ben is becoming too attached to him. Ben soon proposes that he and Trevor take a road trip to see the world's deepest pit, a plan to which Elsa and Trevor reluctantly agree. Then, off Trevor and Ben go to see this pit. In the process, Trevor develops feelings for Dot (Selena Gomez), a teen runaway they pick up at a service station, Trevor learns why Ben chose to become a carer, Ben learns more about his two adolescent charges and these three misfits all slowly bond and discover the reasons for that.

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Based on Jonathan Evison's 2012 novel The Revised Fundamentals of Caregiving, this 2016 Netflix release is a sheer delight alone for how it tells a story about disability in which the disabled character actually drives the narrative and defies stereotypes. Writer-director Rob Burnett tells it himself with no shred of judgment or indiscretion and unrelenting good humour, and visualises it fittingly with photography which feels like the kind you'd record on a road trip; it's relaxed but ever-moving. Ryan Miller's pulsating score compliments this nicely. The cast are uniformly brilliant, particularly Roberts, who seems to enjoy making Trevor really work for our affections (although Roberts himself is able-bodied), and Gomez, who makes Dot's tenuous strength gradually obvious for greater effect. Even Rudd, who's best known for comedic roles and as Ant-Man, gives a strongly balanced turn.

Maybe it's because I myself have a (neurological) disability, but for me this is a shimmering gem with more heart and soul than a church choir singing Amazing Grace. As a road movie, a coming-of-age story, and a celebration of difference, The Fundamentals of Caring is fundamental viewing.