10 Great Indie Films From The Past 5 Years You May Have Missed

x+y, or A Brilliant Young Mind as it was released in the United States, is a British comedy drama about a troubled young maths genius diagnosed with autism. Rafe Spall portrays a washed up teacher and former maths prodigy tasked with mentoring him toward achieving his ultimate goal of representing Great Britain at the International Maths Olympiad.

The film is loosely based on director Morgan Matthews’ 2007 documentary Beautiful Young Minds, and real life Olympiad contestant Daniel Lightwing during the selection process and training for the competition in 2006. The film explores Nathan’s struggle coming to terms with the loss of his father and in trying to make sense of emerging feelings toward a young girl he meets on an opposing team. Meanwhile Nathan’s Mother, played by Sallie Hawkins, pines for the affection of a son who barely understands what love even is.

The film skilfully mixes laughter with serious moments whilst always avoiding being too mushy with themes that have already been explored before. x+y has more than a passing resemblance to both A Beautiful Mind and Good Will Hunting, for example, but it resists the temptation to treat the subject matter with the same overemotional Hollywood approach. The result is a poignant but light-hearted look into the world of a gifted child and how his life and those around him is affected by autism.