At some point in the last 10 to 15 years, the phrase “representation matters” crossed over, at least for me, from a key directive to a tired cliché. I’d grown frustrated by the way some took it to mean that merely putting a (LGBTQ/POC/poor/disabled/what have you) person onscreen was the end goal rather than a first step; the accompanying pressure for those marginalized communities to “feel seen” by these depictions; the implication that making people “feel seen” should be art’s loftiest ambition in the first place.
But I never disagreed with the sentiment itself, only the oversimplification of it. A new documentary about Under the Skin and A Different Man star Adam Pearson, who has facial disfigurement from neurofibromatosis, serves as a refreshingly thoughtful and touchingly intimate reminder of its truth — at least, when Zero Intention of Living Quietly isn’t tripping over its own eagerness to remind you how thoughtful and intimate and true it is.
Zero Intention of Living Quietly
The Bottom Line
Thoughtful and touching, if trying a bit too hard to remind you it is.
