text: This movie is good. It is not great, but it covers a lot of bases. The directing is excellent, with camera work and scene structure that builds to a worthy end. The acting is great, with Renee Russo and Jake Gyllenhaal remaining captivating throughout. Gyllenhaal's character deeply flawed protagonist is excellent as it delicately balances multiple deep character flaws that leave you uncertain and curious to know what happens next. But the story is... unsatisfying. Anticlimactic. Poor. And far worse. Without spoilers I will do the best I can. Jake Gyllenhaal portrays a character who has no character arc, that is not the point of this movie. He starts off desperate and hungry for success, and he ends the same way. We only see the slightest suggestions of him becoming more successful, and we see how far he will go for that success - but this is not new, as we see him go just as far in the opening minutes of the film. Though I imagine everyone is expecting the movie and plot to go in a certain direction (because it is an absurdly cliche story that you have seen before in TV shows, other movies, and books), the movie ends up aiming slightly lower to avoid being entirely cliche. I am certain that at some point the writer/director realized that this was just another retelling of an old trope, and tried to edit the ending to make it a tad less obvious. It does not benefit the movie. Taking a trope and making it weaker does not make a strong movie, it makes a forgettable movie. That is what this movie is - incredibly forgettable. But that is not all that is wrong with the writing in this film. Gyllenhaal's character is clearly autistic (and the writer/director has confirmed this is intentional) to the point that this comes off as a hit piece about people with autism. I have worked with people on the spectrum and while Gyllenhaal's portrayal of an autistic protagonist is well done, the writing behind it disastrously misunderstands what autism is. While the writing has Gyllenhaal correctly neglecting enormous social cues, it also portrays him as obscenely manipulative, exercising such enormous control over social situations that it is absurd. To be frank, regardless of how high functioning Jake Gyllenhaal's character is supposed to be, he cannot both be autistic and simultaneously be so ridiculously successfully manipulative in social situations. This movie makes autistic people out to be self centered villains who will stop at absolutely nothing to obtain what they want. It is a disgustingly misinformed examination of autism. At this point you may be wondering why this movie has such high reviews. While it may be due to Jake Gyllenhaal's convincing glass eyed smiles or Renee Russo's believable portrayal of a struggling exec, I think it also has to do with a less impressive aspect of the film. This movie aims for low hanging fruit, criticizing the news media for being exploitative and corrupt. Literally all of America (and much of the world) has an issue with this right now, the only difference from person to person being exactly which stations they think are worse. I am not saying the media does not deserve this criticism (it really does), and the movie does an excellent job at portraying how ratings come before morality - I am just saying that this is the modern equivalent of making an 80's scifi movie where the military and government are the villains. But that is it. A huge cliche aimed at an easy target. A disgustingly inaccurate portrayal of a person with autism. A well directed movie with a very low goal that completely succeeds at what it is trying to do, but will be forgotten by the next day.