Music, directed by Sia, starring Kate Hudson

Kate Hudson in Music.
Photograph: Vertical Leisure

An old school piece of shameless hokum, Sia’s Music is perhaps hilarious if it weren’t so offensive. The difficulty began late final yr, when the singer-songwriter-turned-director’s characteristic debut was known as out by many for casting Maddie Ziegler, the neurotypical dance prodigy and little one star of a number of Sia movies, within the function of Music, a youngster with autism. Some took comprehensible exception to leaked scenes that includes characters within the movie casually utilizing on Music a type of restraint that may, in truth, be fairly harmful. They had been further perturbed by experiences that the YouTube clips Ziegler watched for analysis into her function had been movies dad and mom had posted of their youngsters having meltdowns — scenes displaying these youngsters at their weakest and most weak, that had been now presumably getting used to extrapolate a complete set of behaviors.

All of that is troublesome, definitely (and Sia has made some apologies since) however Music’s biggest sin could be that within the guise of giving publicity to an underrepresented neighborhood, it truly delivers a foolish, cliché melodrama that manages to sideline that neighborhood even additional. Even when Sia had achieved every little thing proper — solid in another way, vetted the procedures being depicted, and so forth. — the film would in all probability nonetheless be horrible because of its story, which is extra about Music’s older half-sister Zu (Kate Hudson) and her makes an attempt to straighten out. Zu comes again into Music’s life after their grandmother (Mary Kay Place), who was caring for the lady, dies of a sudden coronary heart assault. Zu thinks there is perhaps cash within the will, so she reveals up, solely to find that not solely is there no cash, she can be now liable for the care and well-being of an autistic little one.

However any actual drama that might have come from the premise of callow, infantile, opportunistic Zu studying to know and love her sister is undermined by the truth that Sia doesn’t appear that excited about their life collectively. As an alternative, we get a subplot about Zu dealing medicine to make ends meet, her prolonged conversations along with her very odd, presumably psychotic provider Rudy (Ben Schwartz), to whom she owes some huge cash, and a bunch of scenes the place she tries to move Music off to others. We get the purpose of Zu’s irresponsibility, however all this prompts additional questions: What precisely does Music do all day? What does caring for her truly entail? What are her wants, apart from the stroll she takes each morning and the record of allergy symptoms that grandma helpfully wrote out in a pocket book? The movie by no means actually affords us perception into such issues. It merely assures us that it’s all fairly a problem — which could truly be probably the most offensive factor about it.

In the meantime, a kindly neighbor, Ebo (Leslie Odom, Jr.), who had already been serving to grandma out, comes by to supply steering, knowledge, low-key romantic pressure, and occasional somber glances to ensure that we all know he’s quietly struggling, too. (Unbeknownst to Zu, he has HIV.) Additionally hovering round Music’s life is a kindly, quiet teenage boy throughout the road, who trains to field within the fitness center the place Ebo works, though he actually yearns to be an artist, a lot to the disapproval of his hard-ass dad. It’s like a kind of music movies from 20 or 30 years in the past the place we’d see a complete cavalcade of individuals in quiet agony, in order to validate a pop ballad’s Large Themes. Who is aware of? Perhaps Music would have labored in that format. However at characteristic size, its characters’ challenges don’t come throughout with the specificity or sensitivity required to immerse us of their worlds and produce them to life. The whole lot is drawn with the broad-strokes shorthand of a music video, the place narrative depth is never the purpose.

However then there are the musical numbers. The movie is full of them, and right here’s the place Sia is extra assured. The surreal, primaryy-color dance sequences are normally dream visions — full of the type of exaggerated facial expressions, ridiculous costumes, and sudden, grandiose strikes which have develop into a staple of her movies through the years — they usually have an infectious, hallucinatory vitality, like Busby Berkeley tried to remake The 5000 Fingers of Dr. T on this planet’s largest foam pit. Ziegler is a terrific dancer, to make certain. And the songs are fantastic, as a result of, nicely, you realize, Sia. With their shiny colours, trippy units, thundering beats, and aching melodies, these scenes remind us of what an achieved musician the director stays — they usually even trace on the type of filmmaker she might develop into. However then the dancing ends, the film and its hackneyed story chill into gear, and any good will we would have mustered dissipates as soon as extra.