Something Cult, Foreign-Language or Indie #316: The Ringer (2005).

 

Desk jockey Steve Barker (Johnny Knoxville) has just been promoted, but also has to fire his friend Stavi (Luis Avalos). He reluctantly does so but hires Stavi to work at his home, where Stavi then loses some fingers in a gardening accident. Being unable to pay Stavi's medical bills, Steve catches up with his uncle Gary (Brian Cox), himself deeply in debt from gambling, and they hatch a plan to match-fix the upcoming Special Olympics in Texas. A reluctant Steve agrees and enters the competition as the developmentally delayed Jeffy Dahmor and Gary, convinced Steve/Jeffy will win the competition in a cakewalk, bets $100 000 that defending champion Jimmy Flowers (Leonard Washington) will lose the gold medal. Despite his initial disgust at feigning an intellectual impairment, Steve goes along with it for Stavi.

With how frankly excessively PC so many of us have become now, I doubt The Ringer would've been made today but as somebody on the autism spectrum, I genuinely found it hilarious and sincerely sweet and here's why. Screenwriter Ricky Blitt and director Barry W. Blaustein clearly have no desire to attack any of the disabled characters here; instead their target is the so-called "hero" Steve, for quite passively complying with such an unethical and fraudulent scheme, and his disabled roommates are the only ones anyway who his act doesn't fool. It also subtly condemns the Special Olympics for how it can really exploit its athletes instead of promoting and celebrating them and for how easily the system can (at least apparently) be rorted. 

The film also criticises stereotypes through its disabled characters without criticising the characters themselves, and the romance between Steve and SO volunteer Lynn (Katherine Heigl) is understated and uncliched. Overall, I think The Ringer is a daring romp with a warm, loving centre that earns a spot on the dais. 8/10.

Something Cult, Foreign-Language or Indie #315: Anna and the Apocalypse (2017).

 

In Little Haven, Scotland, high school is almost over for Anna Shepherd (Ella Hunt) and she plans to take a gap year before university despite her widower father Tony's (Mark Benton) disapproval. Her friends also have problems: best friend John (Malcolm Cumming) secretly loves her, budding director Chris (Christopher Leveaux) is behind on an assignment and American exchange student Steph (Sarah Swire) is butting heads, thanks to her social justice reportage, with the dictatorial principal Mr. Savage (Paul Kaye). Anna's one-night stand Nick (Ben Wiggins) is also giving her grief. On the night of the school's Christmas show, in which one of the performers is Chris' girlfriend Lisa (Marli Siu), a zombie infections breaks out around town, before the next morning when Anna and John discover it's gone all over town except in the school, where they must take shelter and fight the zombie hordes off - all to numerous song-and-dance numbers in true musical form.

Anna and the Apocalypse has been likened to Shaun of the Dead meets La La Land, and that's a fairly accurate comparison. Based on a 2010 short by Ryan McHenry, who died in 2015 of osteosarcoma at age 27, director John McPhail and co-writer Alan McDonald make this festive horror musical gel, although it took me some time to really see what it was seeking to do. I initially had the feeling, after about 30 minutes, that the songs were too poppy and corny for the horror aspect (although I knew beforehand it was also a musical) and so that then make me very briefly disconnect from it. But then I realised its aims were to satirise both the musical genre for how wholesome and conservative it often is, and the horror/slasher genres for how cliched and stuffy they can be. McPhail and his cast and crew balance the combination through consistent pacing, natural choreography and visuals that are in between being grainy and extravagant.

The songs are catchy and engaging, the cast all demonstrate strong chops with both acting and singing, and the violence gradually builds to a very gruesome climax. It's maybe not as brutally honest or subversive a depiction of adolescence as I would've liked it to have been but regardless, I had fun with Anna and the Apocalypse. 8/10.

Something, Cult, Foreign-Language or Indie #314: Kairos (2018).

 

Meet Danny (Chris Bunton), a young man with Down syndrome residing in a foster home. His dream is to become a professional boxer and to work towards this, he practices at his local gym with his stern but loyal trainer John (Jerome Pride). Danny gets many rounds and even a few amateur bouts under his belt before he has an accident with John that leaves Danny injured and John with second thoughts. Undeterred, however, Danny sticks to his goal and meanwhile also finds a potential romance with Ellie (Audrey O'Connor), who also has DS.

Kairos is certainly a well-meaning Aussie film, and kudos to its makers for casting a real Down syndrome performer (the engaging Chris Bunton) in the lead, but its execution really rubbed me the wrong way. Writer-director Paul Barakat insists on making John a seemingly ever-present, non-disabled crucial saviour for Danny on his quest, instead of putting Danny in the driver's seat as an independent hero. As somebody with disability (albeit not DS) I find it deeply demeaning when movies about disability have the protagonist manage to succeed only with a non-disabled character's help; to me that's not much better than when disabled people are villainised in cinema.

Barakat's bland visual style and pacing also don't help, and a couple of dream sequences revert from being incoherent to wise and back again. Plus the supporting cast can only do so much with what are quite underdeveloped characters. Despite its good intentions, Kairos is for me just another uplifting disability drama for non-disabled audiences, trying unsuccessfully to pass for a clarion call for solidarity and change. 6/10.