Being Heumann

Being Heumann is an essential piece of disabled cinema, laying out a stark foundation for the fight for disability rights. It doesn't have the heartwarming charm of director Sian Heder's previous film, CODA, but has far more power and impact. Ruth Madeley is a revelation as Judy Heumann. Do I believe this movie will compel Hollywood to tell more disabled stories? No, sadly. But the fact that this movie exists at all is kind of a miracle.

The title of the film is an apt play on words that gets to the heart of why Heder's latest film works so well. It beautifully captures an era and a group of people who risked everything to change the world. The fruits of their labors are seen nearly everywhere nowadays — just take a stroll down your sidewalk, for example. Heder provides a distinct window into this fight as only she can, giving it the nuance and heart it rightly deserves.

Being Heumann isn’t as transporting a movie as “CODA” was, yet it’s a stirring drama cut from the same cloth of cathartic empathy. And it’s also structurally bold.

Heder's movie gives viewers a better understanding of the title character and her achievements (and the disability rights movement of the 1970s more broadly), while still ensuring that the story is engaging enough that the educational aspect never completely takes over.

As predictable as Being Heumann can be as an underdog narrative, Heder’s clear affection for her characters shines through. And it should not be discounted how rare it is to see a major motion picture starring disabled, Deaf and Blind performers who get to play characters with significant screen time and dimensionality. But, unfortunately, those good intentions are diminished when Heder reduces a major moment in the history of disability rights to just another feel-good picture.

Ironically, for a story about unique outsiders fighting to be seen, heard, and accepted as they are, it follows every groan-worthy rule in the rah-rah uplift playbook.

What accessibility means to Heder, as a filmmaker who wants to reach the broadest possible audience, and to Heumann and her cohort, who are battling for curb cuts and other changes to allow them to participate in public life, are two very different and sometimes contradictory things.