Review of Best Kept Secret (2013) by Jz_Bubbles — 14 Mar 2015

This film provided a unique perspective into the autistic community. These are kids from a low-income neighborhood with little to no outside resources available to them. I say they are kids but in fact they are 21 year old adults about to age out of the public school system. It's clear from the start that they are not ready to participate in the outside world and their options are bleak.

The film doesn't have a narrator and, due to the linguistic limitations of the subjects, none of the kids can be interviewed directly. But the film focuses on Janet Mino, who is their very passionate teacher. By the end of the film I found myself seeing the students through her eyes as individual people with their own dreams and motivations even though they can't articulate them.

The one weakness I found was that there were a few meetings (particularly between Ms. Mino and the school principal) that were obviously staged to provide background to the audience. This damaged the film's credibility in my eyes but Ms. Mino's passion was obviously not staged.

The film doesn't become too preachy and tell people what needs to be done. It simply provides us with a glimpse into the troubles of a few underprivileged students.