The Unbreakable Boy

It’s funny, I was actually starting to drift away from this whole “movie critic” thing. I felt like I was falling into a formula that strays from what I normally do. Reviews were becoming like sheets of bleh, copied and pasted from a really bad AI generator. They felt impersonal and stale. “No one wants to read one more review. Heck, no one really reads blogs anymore!” I said to myself. I still love going to the movies, but I figured why bother trying to tell anyone else about it?Then tonight, I went to see “The Unbreakable Boy.” I’m excited to share this experience with you. It’s not every day that a movie speaks to me personally, calling you out practically by name, and giving you a message that jolly well might help you pivot the rest of your life. 

Wow, that sounds intense. Let’s get started, shall we?

The movie is about a kid named Austin (aka “auzman,”) who has both autism and brittle-bone disease (that’s Osteogenesis Imperfecta for all you smart people out there.) But while the movie tries to capture his perspective, it tells the stories of all the lives that intertwine with his. Honestly, this movie is as much about everyone else as it is about him. It’s about his mom, who also has brittle bones. It’s about his classmates, his friends, and even his bullies. 

And it’s also about his dad. 

His dad is a bit of a perfectionist. He takes on the challenges that life throws at him with ferocity, but he basically just copes with his sense of ideals. He carries them around like a big, heavy backpack, medicating his disappointments in a variety of ways. At one point, he sits down with his parents and asks them how they did it with him. His dad turns to him and drops a line I probably won’t forget for a long, long time:

Yeah, it’s a lot. The trick is to find a way to be happy through it. 

Honestly, I probably botched the exact wording, but that’s the idea. Life’s a lot. It’s more than we can handle sometimes. We have to learn to see the good in those moments, even when things seem like they just keep falling apart. 

Then Austin's grandma, a bit later in the movie, drops an even bigger bomb. She tells her son that it’s not your cracks, your flaws, or your brokenness that define you. How you heal does. How you cope with life going wrong, how you handle the bad times, that’s who you are. And you know what? It pivots you into who you become. 

I know that’s true because I lived it. I hit rock bottom in college. It felt like everything that could go wrong did and I felt like I was being buried. I don’t know who said it first, but I heard a rapper named Manafest say it, so I’ll quote him:

Sometimes, you feel like you’re being buried, but you’re actually being planted. 

I felt like life was over, but if I was going to go out, it would be swinging. So I scraped and clawed my way out of the mess I found myself in. It wasn’t perfect, but I didn’t stay stuck. And now, to this day, I still cling to my strength and stubbornness. They’re a big part of who I am.

Obviously, I relate to the dad. I’m not as bad as I used to be, but I still have some perfectionistic tendencies. Like I have to have it all together before I can step out into life. But sometimes you just have to step out into life’s deep ends. I hate to admit it, but it’s true. Can you imagine trying to tread water where you can still stand up? It doesn’t work like that. 

I can throw words like that on a page, but that doesn’t make it any more comforting. And that doesn’t mean we need to just get out there and drown. But we learn as we move through life. And sometimes, we need to admit that we need help. Good help. Not just anyone, but those who can actually get us there. We need wiser folks around us. 

The other scary truth is that you’ll fall down sometimes. You’ll find some of the dark stuff going on in your head. As much as I would love for it to be otherwise, you can’t always sit in the void to learn about yourself. It comes through getting out there and living life. This can be hard,  and scary. Honestly, I’m still paralyzed by this idea most days. Deep down, I’m painfully aware of the fact that I have no idea what I’m doing. It paralyzes me, keeping me from doing almost anything but what I’m familiar with. Because if I can’t be in control, I can’t keep the outcomes from being really bad. I can’t regulate my stress levels. And that’s not a place I want to be in. 

Wow, that got deep. To take a step back and put my movie-critic helm back on, this movie deserves to be seen. I’m going to be a real naggy-maggy about this one because I believe it really packs a punch. Most of the criticisms that I have seen are about the fact that it is executed in a really light way, despite having a lot of heavier moments. I disagree wholeheartedly with that criticism. The mantra of the movie is to see the low’s through hopefully-tinted glasses. It does what it has set out to do. The lows don’t need to be cripplingly depressing to make for higher highs. The contrast would be a bit blinding, and that would make it feel really odd. It holds to a lighter tone to complement the message of the movie and I say it’s just fine. 

Funnily enough, this is one of those movies that has created a strong split between the critics and audiences. Critics are dumping on it pretty badly and audiences are giving it near-perfect scores. If you weren’t planning to see this already, do so. If you don’t change your mind, I’m going to get a thousand leaf blowers to send you rocketing back over the fence. This is a movie that must be seen! Ticket sales must soar! Let’s make it happen, people!

Until Next Time,

May Peace be your Guide.