[DISLECKSIA: THE MOVIE screens Thursday October 4th at 5:00 pm at the Chagrin Documentary Film Fest.]
Review by Charles Cassady, Jr.

Perhaps my former editors were all
dyslexic, hobbled by an inability to read. Or they operate under a
mandate to publish material suitable for a dyslexic readership. That
would sure explain the state of the American media. In any case,
given these no-responsibility days, when kids and adults are
practically standing in line to be diagnosed with autism and
Aspberger's – and I'm given to understand that labeling yourself
"special needs" guarantees quite a few nice perks and
privileges - I could well believe that newspapers, magazines and
website would hire a dyslexic over someone who can read without
difficulty. “Diversity” and all that.
So I was surprised how much I enjoyed DISLECKSIA: THE MOVIE, filmmaker Harvey Hubbell's rollicking, star-studded first-person essay on his own dyslexia. It might be enough to make more people want to join the learning-disability brotherhood, especially when he puts on the "differently abled" tag instead.
In the example of dyslexia there might
be reason to warrant the distinction. Is this disease truly a
"malady"? Unlike other brain problems, nobody ever
suspected dyslexia existed until moveable type and public education
began to bring literacy to the masses. Suddenly there were whole
groups who seemed to have enormous difficulty comprehending text -
interpreting and processing written symbols and figures. In other
words a technological advance flushed this “disease” from utter
obscurity into the open, whereas it might otherwise have gone
unnoticed and no problem.
While long stigmatized as stupid or
lazy or classroom troublemakers, the dyslexics actually can exhibit a
high degree of intellect - it’s pretty well established that
Einstein and Edison were dyslexic – and Hubbell, stating that 15 to
35 million Americans are dyslexic, gets an all-star assembly of them.
Actor-director-writer-musician Billy Bob Thornton compares dyslexia
to seeing ghosts, a sensation not describable. Joe Pantoliano says
his youthful pretense that he could read led to his talent for
make-believe that inspired his durable acting career. The late TV
great (and novelist) Stephen J. Cannell emphasizes that just because
he has trouble inputting stuff, he can still output prolifically.
Hubbell’s very well-traveled lens
accompanies an all-dyslexic team of biology students in the Costa
Rican rain forests, points out that the game of Twister was invented
by a dyslexic, and goes to darkest Wisconsin, where the state’s
educational politics take a position that dyslexia doesn’t exist –
in order that no budgets must be set aside for special education (oh,
maybe that’s also why Kansas, Ohio and Tennessee school boards want
to deny evolution).
All well and good and empowering, but
what really elevates DISLECKSIA is Hubbell’s peppy pacing
and abundant sense of humor about himself and his predicament (of
course, a Billy Bob Thornton POV helps anything). The feature is a
textbook example of creative and hilarious use of massive amounts of
nostalgia-laden stock footage. It’s a real ROTF moment when J.Edgar
Hoover, Leon Trotsky and Benito Mussolini pop up with gag voice-overs
as Hubbell’s own high-school guidance counselors, dumping on their
former charge. The filmmaker also unearths vaultloads of weird
instructional films and quack-medicine devices foisted upon
learning-disabled kids of yesteryear by the psychiatric
establishment. Dig the huge Clown Alley corrective eyeglasses only
Lady Gaga could (or should) ever wear.
Much as it illuminates its topic and
entertains while doing so, the movie does feel a little too long, by
about 10 to 15 minutes – or do I have attention-deficit disorder
and need a funny documentary to examine my plight? Hubbell, get over
here, stat! 3 1/2 out of 4 stars.
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