Santikos Cine-opsis

I just finished watching “The Horse Boy”, a touching and very real documentary about an amazing family and the lengths they went to help their young child overcome some of the behavioral difficulties associated with autism.

And by lengths, I mean riding horseback over Mongolian countryside to perform a game of psychic-twister with some ancient reindeer-herding shaman.

I know!  Cool!  I had no idea I’d be this enthralled by a movie called “The Horse Boy”, but here I am at 1:35am still excited about how a very hard to reach child was helped by shamanic rituals to live a more normal life.

At the risk of getting too personal (even for a blog), there are autism related cases in my family history, and the respect and honesty in which parents Rupert Isaacson and Kristin Neff discuss and attempt to treat their son Rowan’s autistic fits is gripping and emotional, without being melodramaic or exploitative.  And both parents are quick to caution that they are not suggesting that all parents of autistic children hop on a horse and roll up on some reindeer farmers in the Mongolian highlands.  But what the film shows us is that parents of all children can accomplish astounding positive changes in their children by being observent to the desires of those children.

The movie is touching without melodrama.  It has a message, but doesn’t preach it.  And even though I have persnoal experience with autism in my family, watching “The Horse Boy” even gave me a higher understanding of the disease; not from a textbook perspective, but from a family behavioural viewpoint.  The family’s trip to Mongolia is a metaphor for tenacity and compassion….and, more selfishly, to figure out how to get their kid to use the bathroom and quit screaming inconsolably for hours at a time.

“The Horse Boy” is just now beginning to pop up in local theaters, and thankfully for S.A., we’re one of them.  In fact, writer and producer Rupert Isaacson will be in town TODAY at the Santikos Bijou theater for a special screening of the film, followed by a Q&A session.

This is a serious request from me to you, the quiet readers and spam solicitors who read this blog.  GO TO THE SCREENING!  You will have a better understanding of the world of autism, and possibly your own world, for having seen this movie.

Now, all plugs aside, I promise that I’ll be back to normal, shredding some stupid movie with wooden acting and a crappy plot by next week (I plan on seeing “Jennifer’s Body”).  But until then, you’re getting shmaltzy JT.  And schmaltzy JT tells you to get your butts down to the Bijou by 6pm Sunday so you can talk to an amazing family and watcah a documentary that will leave you wanting to find a palamino, a sherpa, and a teepee camp full of reindeer shaman.

What: Uber-special screening of “The Horse Boy” followed by Q&A with the dad from the film

Where: Bijou Theater, Crossroads Mall

When:  6pm book signing, 7pm movie, 8:30pm Q&A

Why:  Because you can rent “Love Happens”, and “Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs” will still be there next weekend.

So DO IT!  Then give me some feedback and tell me what you think.