John Donvan and Caren Zucker’s IN A DIFFERENT KEY brings their autism research to the screen — Austin Film Festival review

John Donvan and Caren Zucker’s IN A DIFFERENT KEY brings their autism research to the screen — Austin Film Festival review

Autism seems like such a commonly discussed diagnosis these days that it may surprise most viewers how recent its discovery was. So recent, in fact, that the first man ever diagnosed with it is (knocks wood, as of this writing) still alive.

His name is Donald Triplett, and now in his late 80s, he still lives, quite functionally, in his family hometown of Forest, Mississippi.

Journalists and Writers John Donvan and Caren Zucker tracked him down for an article in The Atlantic, then literally wrote the book on autism after further research, entitling it In a Different Key.

This documentary of the same title could be considered the Cliffs Notes version, but that’s no slight – movies are often tasked with creating more digestible versions of scholarly works. The book was a Pulitzer finalist; the film may or may not be similarly lauded. But most importantly, it clears up a whole lot of misconceptions for those who only know of the condition through Rain Man and anti-vaccine conspiracies.

Like so much else that simplistic forces in society try to force into a binary, autism is a spectrum. And while we may have heard the phrase “on the spectrum,” internalizing what it means is another thing. Donvan and Zucker take pains to show both ends, emphasizing that while it’s unfair and prejudicial to assume high-functioning autistic people can’t function just fine, it’s equally misguided to neglect just how much help those on the other end need, in some cases to keep from physically damaging themselves regularly.

Zucker has an interest in the topic that’s more than academic – her son Mickey is autistic, and the film gives him similar screen-time as Triplett, with the end goal being to have the two meet and share experiences. She’s less successful in front of the camera as a talking head than she is behind it, but her interactions with her son are crucial.

Triplett, besides an obsession with numbers and nicknames, seems an otherwise well-adjusted senior citizen, owing in part to family wealth and privilege. Successful enough not to have to shunt him off to a sanitarium, his parents instead documented his behavior in detail, sending their findings to the best doctors. Still employed at the family bank as a legacy will provision, and embraced by his entire town, this “first” case stands as a best-case scenario. Meanwhile, non-white, and low-income communities disproportionately fail to diagnose properly, due to longstanding “savant” prejudices of autism being perceived a disease of the wealthy and educated. And with that lack of proper diagnosis, sadly, comes more misplaced police brutality.

The movie is optimistic that police can be educated to better understand and not harm autistic people who react unexpectedly. Probably overly so. But if it increases awareness on any level, so much the better.

Condensing a book’s worth of research must be a challenge and cannot be comprehensive – the debate over Hans Asperger’s research, to cite one of many related issues, isn’t covered here. Centering the story on two people from different generations, then branching off from there, is smart structure. It might have been nice to have a non-white, underprivileged protagonist too, rather than having that be a subchapter, but both Donald Triplett and Mickey Zucker have unimpeachable reasons for being the focus here. Creatives, after all, are often advised to “write” what they know. Since they know a hell of a lot, what they specifically know firsthand is a fair enough way to narrow it down.

For me, feedback from several readers on different parts of the spectrum was hugely illuminating in my understanding of the condition. To those who don’t have the benefit of my same circumstances, In a Different Key does a lot of important heavy lifting. Yet in the hands of many who have a lot of experience, it might feel like light work.

John Donvan and Caren Zucker’s IN A DIFFERENT KEY brings their autism research to the screen — Austin Film Festival review