Our take
When depicting a person known best for an advocacy, you have to be accurate to their story, but it’s rare to see a biopic match the ideas of that advocacy in its direction. It’s because of this that the HBO film Temple Grandin is great. While made for TV, it’s not a by-the-numbers biopic that just depicts the academic’s life straight. No, instead, the film experiments with visual ways to depict her unique visual intelligence– as Grandin’s autism also granted her photogenic memory, an above-average instinct for mechanical smarts, and a focus and drive to understand that’s not as shakable as other neurotypical academics. This novel approach matches the very advocacies she lived throughout her life– the systematic, more humane treatment in slaughterhouses, and the idea that autism doesn’t mean deficiency, it just needs support to allow that different intelligence to thrive.
What it won
Golden Globes
1 win · 2 noms
SAG Awards
1 win · 1 nom
DGA
1 win
WGA
1 nom
The story
A biopic of Temple Grandin, an autistic American who has become one of the leading scientists in humane livestock handling.
Elsewhere
"Most impressively, Danes gets past the tics of her character -- an autistic woman who "thinks in pictures" -- to create the sort of memorable portrait that frequently yields gilded ornaments as a lovely parting gift."
— Brian Lowry
Arizona, 1960s. Before going to college, autistic woman Temple Grandin visits a cattle ranch owned by her aunt Ann, unexpectedly becoming an animal husbandry expert known best for her advocacy of humane slaughterhouse practices.
Claire Danes.
Thank you, Temple Grandin, for sharing your story.
The details
Streaming arrival
Who picked it
Isabella Endrinal is a curator at A Good Movie to Watch. She's now free from the corporate night shift. Previous articles have been published in outlets such as NANG Magazine. She's currently catching up on some classic films… if she isn't coping with the fact that the Haikyu anime will end soon.
