Best and Most Beautiful Things

Like a cat tethered to a leash, Michelle Smith, the young woman at the center of filmmaker Garrett Zevgetis's sometimes uncomfortable documentary, is not free to head off on her own as an independent adult. Legally blind and having Asperger's syndrome, Michelle faces challenges that weigh on her ambitions, keen intelligence, and artistic sensibility. Living with her divorced mother in Bangor, ME, viewers first meet Michelle during her teens and follow her triumphs and defeats over several years, from her lengthy, boarding-school education at the Massachusetts-based Perkins School for the Blind (Helen Keller was once a student there) to a hopeful visit to Los Angeles and a relationship with a first boyfriend. Along the way, there are disappointments (she loses a job, largely due to her autism) but also moments to cheer (Michelle is a determined writer, even if she has to put one eye right up next to a computer screen to read anything). As Michelle grows older, she more and more takes to task others' assumptions and becomes angry when told she isn't ready for certain opportunities. An internship offer made to her by the L.A. production company behind television's Rugrats comes to naught when her school counselor says she can't live on her own. Independence arrives anyway when a low-key, sadomasochistic streak enters her romantic life. In the end, this portrait of a remarkable child-woman fighting a steep, uphill battle for the right to live life on her own terms is inspiring. Recommended. Aud: C, P. (T. Keogh)