Music Got Me Here

I also found it odd that at no point was it mentioned how costly Allen’s treatment was, given that he is based in the United States. From the shots of his home, it can reasonably be assumed that his parents were wealthy, and therefore rich enough to afford music, physical, and speech therapy along with the many surgeries and hospital visits Allen required. Given that the documentary strays from Allen and Sweitzer when discussing the scientific efficacy of music therapy, I was surprised that no consideration was given to the therapy’s financial cost.

“…found it odd that at no point was it mentioned how costly Allen’s treatment was…”

Especially since the discussion around medical debt, affordable and public option healthcare, and ‘Medicare for all’ has become more mainstream in the past decade. Since private markets are an integral aspect of the American healthcare system, and this film is based in and around the American healthcare system, the erasure of the cost of care from this documentary, as well as any mention of the efficiency or inefficiency of privatized care, is noticeably strange.

Music Got Me Here never quite found its footing over its 90-minute runtime. Despite the journey being emotionally powerful and heartwarming, there was a lack of clarity on who and what this story was about and why the filmmakers were telling it. I can identify aspects of the narrative that I would have liked the director to have pursued or included in the final cut, but this was not my movie and not my story to tell at the end of the day. This was Susan Koch’s story, but I could not grasp what she was saying while watching this documentary.