Review: 'Being Heumann' is about the euphoria of activism even if its uplift feels well-behaved

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Set us as preferred To bend a famous paradoxical question, can an immovable object also be an unstoppable force? Why, yes, especially if we’re talking about disability advocate Judy Heumann, one of the most consequential figures in civil rights history.In 1977, the wheelchair-using New York teacher spearheaded the longest sit-in protest of a federal building in American history, sparking enforcement of the country’s first anti-discrimination legislation for people with disabilities (Section 504 of the 1972 Rehabilitation Act).If, like many, you came away from 2020’s archive-rich documentary “Crip Camp: A Disability Revolution” wondering when we’d get a Judy Heumann movie centered on the beaming force of her sharp-edged personality, Oscar-winning filmmaker Siân Heder has now answered that call with her “CODA” follow-up, “Being Heumann,” built around that momentous sit-in.

It’s a well-intentioned, heart-in-the-right-place movie — but is that what this ornery tale of angry activists upending a social order designed to keep them hidden ultimately deserves? It’s hard to square the inspiring reality of a ragtag gang tossing out the playbook that life handed them with the cut-and-dried filmmaking choices “Being Heumann” ultimately deploys to try to stir us.Casting isn’t one of its problems.Heder’s dedication to experiential authenticity in her actors matters, and it shows.

From the moment she’s stopping a Mack truck in Manhattan traffic in the opening scene, Ruth Madeley gives great middle-finger energy and wry humor as Heumann, although there’s not enough of the latter in Heder and co-screenwriter Rebekah Taussig’s often straightforward depiction of her leadership skills.Movies Five years after her Oscar-winning ‘CODA,’ filmmaker Siân Heder talks about ‘Being Heumann,’ her new movie opening Toronto, and how her life changed.Still, a disruptive vigor carries us throug...