Don’t Be a Dick About It 2018 | Boys in movies [BiM]

Don’t Be a Dick About It 2018

Don’t Be a Dick About It 2018
1h 9 min | Comedy, Documentary | 20 December 2019 (USA)

Storyline:

Two red-headed kids fight a lot, eat a lot, and grow up a little in a goofy coming of age story that looks at the small things in life that define who we are, or at least define that we’re all dicks. Matthew has braces, likes soccer and has an irrational and extreme fear of dogs. Peter is obsessed with the reality TV show Survivor, loves the letter “C” and is terrified of Cheerios, the breakfast cereal. We follow these two brothers as they struggle to overcome their own fears, learn to accept each other’s differences but mostly just piss each other off. Through playfully constructed vérité scenes, Don’t Be A Dick About It explores expectations and imagination, fears and hopes, being normal and being weird.

User review:

The film is predominantly divided across two sub-narratives. These follow the brothers in their separate daily rituals and intersect at different points throughout, mimicking the fluidity of their actual lives. Matthew, the younger of the two, has an intense, irrational fear of dogs; as a form of exposure therapy, his mum takes him to a local dog park every week, pushing him to overcome his phobia. Peter, an excitable extrovert, is enamoured with the reality show Survivor, which he mimics by conducting nightly elimination ceremonies with an unlit tiki torch.

As made directly clear in the final 10 minutes through a conversation shared by the two brothers, Peter has autism. While laughs stem from his quirky personality and slightly awkward social skills, Mullinkosson approaches his cousin’s condition with immense compassion, and Peter is clearly self-aware of his own hilarity. As such, it never feels exploitative. If anything, the film wants to empower Peter for his neurodiversity. Unlike other films covering the subject, autism is not depicted as an arbitrary hurdle.

Director: Ben Mullinkosson
Country: USA
Language: English
Release Date: 20 December 2019 (USA)
Also Known As: Don’t Be a Dick About It
Filming Locations: Chevy Chase, Maryland, USA

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt7569660/