The Big Short- No Sheldon in Sight

I have been planning on writing my The Big Short review for some time and have managed to get it up just before the Oscars! It's a great film. Go See it. But thats not my topic today, well it is. But you'll see!

Anywho last year one of the big awards contenders was The Imitation Game- a film I praised for its portrayal of Turing. Mainly for his portrayal of his suspected autism. Well sod it we have something better now but first I have to do a little bit explaining. 

Firstly I am bored to death of all these characters that are portrayed of having autistic featured but then the creators saying something ridiculously crappy like they don't have it because they are too dark, or that they have extreme empathy or that they have extreme control over them. (I'm talking Chasing Shadows, Sherlock that sorta thing) Having a learning disability or Autism shouldn't be a plot device and it pisses me off. I verge onto the spectrum and trust me I get super antsy about this. Characters like Sheldon Cooper upset me to no end because thats what people think i'm like and its really scary. 

So you can imagine seeing Christian Bale play Dr. Michael Burry my dander went up. I was very concerned that the trope was wearing its ugly head again. I can't stand the whole Ambiguous disorder trope but slowly I recognised something. This wasn't the general portrayal at all. This was refreshing. Burry didn't seem to fall in all the general troubled genius trope. This was no regurgitated Sheldon Cooper, this was more than that. 

So you can imagine the first thing I googled when I got out of the cinema was "Real Life Michael Burry". Yes he has Aspergers.He wasn't just the standard grump genius he really was on the spectrum and that means something.

In fact its what I took away from the film is for the first time there was a character on the screen who had the same thing I had and it wasn't the joke. It was just who he was.

So Mr Bale I would like to thank you wholeheartedly for not making your portrayal of Burry just another Sheldon Cooper. 

On the whole film front btw It's a great film and as usual I love a biopic so it scores highly for me on that ground too! Also go see it for Gosling with a perm and Selena Gomez explaining financial stuff. It's a great and vaguely scary watch.