10 Worst Movie Characters Of 2021 (So Far)

You won't find many more controversial or critically-panned movies this year than Sia's Music, a well-intended yet ultimately insulting attempt to depict autism on-screen.

Young Maddie Ziegler plays Music Gamble, a nonverbal autistic girl who comes into the care of her drug dealer trainwreck of an older sister, Zu (Kate Hudson).

Though the film was marketed off the back of Ziegler's presence, it sparked outrage for two reasons - the physical heavy-handedness of Ziegler's performance in attempting to imitate a severely autistic person, and the fact that she's not even the real focus of the story.

Ultimately, Music is really about Zu, who by committing to care for Music manages to get her life back on track, the story utilising Music as a prop for her sister's betterment.

But far worse is the scene where Zu uses the extremely dangerous prone restraint technique on Music during one of her episodes, which sends a potentially harmful message to audiences and saw members of the autistic community request its removal.

While it's clear that Sia was attempting to represent Music herself as a complex human being, placing the focus on the neurotypical, obnoxious Zu massively undermines that attempt, on top of everything else Sia got wrong with her depiction of autism.

Sia, Hudson, and Ziegler ultimately all won Razzie awards - Worst Director, Worst Actress, and Worst Supporting Actress respectively - for their work on the film.