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How do you go about winning Best Picture? As filmmaker Siân Heder told us before the world premiere of her “Being Heumann” last month, the answer was simple: just go for “the hardest story she could imagine telling.” Fortunately for the “CODA” director, her tendency to use her newfound Hollywood clout to tell such a story has paid off, big time.
Heder’s biopic about remarkable disability rights activist Judy Heumann opened this year’s TIFF to rave reviews, many of whom praised its unexpectedly light tone, inspiring use of a very diverse cast, and star Ruth Madeley’s breakthrough performance.
As I wrote in my own review, “Judy’s natural presence is a given, but the central question of Heder’s film – which she adapted from Heumann’s biography with co-writer Rebekah Taussig – is how she uses all that to effect change. A storied life had many surprising chapters (she died in 2023, two years after she began working with Heder on the film), the filmmakers quickly zero in on one slice of advanced life to craft ‘Being Heumann.’ That’s not true, but the film still succeeds greatly in contextualizing Heumann’s role in the disability rights movement and her uniqueness as a true American origin.”
The end result is an exciting, fast-paced and genuinely thought-provoking biopic that never feels like homework. It’s also a great reminder of the power of film not just to tell stories that need to be told, but to tell them. right. Heder used a large cast of people of all disabilities, a moving (and quick!) way to tell a story that has unexpected mass appeal.
The film also stars Dylan O’Brien, Madeline Delp, Roberta Colindrez, Jon Beavers, Antwan Tolliver, Ray Fisher, Andrew Pilkington, Michael Patrick Thornton, Russell Harvard, Daniel Durant, Charlie Rush-Reese, Rio Finnegan, D’Arcee Charington Neal, Will Brill, Rob Delaney, Matthew August Jeffers, Siinena Rafter, and Reese.
Apple TV will release “Being Heumann” in select theaters on Friday, November 6 before its worldwide theatrical release on Friday, November 13. Watch the film’s first trailer below.
