How do you follow a Best Picture win? 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 trying to tell.” Luckily for the “CODA” director, her inclination to use her newfound heft in Hollywood to tell such a story has paid off, big time.
Heder’s biopic about the incredible disability rights activist Judy Heumann opened this year’s TIFF to stellar reviews, many of which hailed its unexpectedly light tone, inspiring use of a truly diverse cast, and the breakout performance by star Ruth Madeley.
As I wrote in my own review, “That Judy has natural presence is a given, but the central question of Heder’s film — which she adapted from Heumann’s autobiography alongside co-writer Rebekah Taussig — is how she will use all that verve to truly enact change. It’s the sort of concern that has always impacted great leaders, and suffice it to say, Heumann was indeed a great leader. But while Heumann’s long, storied life had many incredible chapters (she passed away in 2023, two years after she started working with Heder on the film), the filmmakers smartly zero in one on seminal slice of life to craft ‘Being Heumann.’ Cradle to the grave this is not, but the film still succeeds mightily when contextualizing Heumann’s role in the disability rights movement and her singularity as a true American original.”
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The final product is a rousing, brisk, and genuinely inspiring biopic that never feels like homework. It also serves as a sterling reminder of the power of film to not only tell stories that need to be told, but to tell them right. Heder utilized a massive cast of people of all disabilities, a moving (and smart!) way to tell a story that has unexpectedly 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, Siena Rafter, and Rein Barcel.
Apple TV will release “Being Heumann” in select theaters on Friday, November 6 before it launches globally on the platform on Friday, November 13. Check out the film’s first trailer below.