westsideschl
Had potential to address the subject of gender identification and its challenges, but just turned out to drag on about dysfunctional family life. Usual matriarchal extended family substituting for divorced mom with a challenging daughter/son. Just droned on (and overacted), in that typical NY writing style, about unhappy households with their endless arguing. That region of the country has an unhealthy fixation with stereotypical rom/coms; drinking parties for singles or wannabe singles; dysfunctional families; hooking up with the emotional attachment of rabbits. Ending was rather hokey, everyone is at peace with each other. How nice! Kudos to Elle Fanning for how she presented her character.
gradyharp
Gaby Dallal directs her own screenplay (co-written with Nikole Beckwith) in what is one of the most significant films abut the gender perception changing world in which we live. It is a very intelligent, humorous, sensitive and wholly entertaining film that has the courage to open the conflicts that face transgender people and their families. Family living under one roof in New York must deal with a life-changing transformation by one that ultimately affects them all. Ray (Elle Fanning) is a teenager who has come to the realization that he isn't meant to be a girl and has decided to transition from female to male. His single mother, Maggie (Naomi Watts), must track down Ray's biological father (Tate Donovan – or his brother Sam Trammell) to get his legal consent to allow Ray's transition. Dolly (Susan Sarandon), Ray's lesbian grandmother, living with her life partner Frances (Linda Emond) is having a hard time accepting that she now has a grandson. They must each confront their own identities and learn to embrace change and their strength as a family in order to ultimately find acceptance and understanding.The entire cast is exceptional and as always Naomi Watts, Susan Sarandon, and Elle Fanning are superb – wholly credible in their challenging roles. But there are also some fine small parts, such as the therapist Dr. Brillstein (Andrew Polk) and Frances (Linda Emond) who stand out as bight lights that enhance the story.All in all an excellent film on every level and one that deserves a very large audience. Highly Recommended.
Moviegoer19
After reading other reviews and thinking about the film, I realize just how complex it really is. On first glance the main subject appears to be the character Ray/Ramona played beautifully by Elle Fanning, but it's actually not. The subject or theme I believe is the three generations of women in one family, and the problems/identity issues each one is grappling with. Each character is representative, to an extent, of her own generation. The oldest generation represented by the character played by Susan Sarandon, Dodo, is an artsy, self-confident lesbian who has a life partner but is not married to her, presumably not only because they got together way before marriage was even an option, but because they had a "who needs a marriage certificate" attitude. Sarandon's character is the "man" in the family.Then there's the middle generation, represented by Naomi Watts'character. She also represents her generation, which encompasses some "me generation" qualities, including sleeping with her boyfriend's brother, and having a kind of laid-back almost apathetic personality. She is dominated both by her mother and her child.And then there's Elle Fanning's character, representing a youth of today for whom it's totally natural to believe she was born in the wrong gender and all she needs to do is take meds and have surgery and everything will be set right. S/he also has the very confident, almost arrogant mindset that she's entitled to say anything she thinks or feels to her parents, grandparents, and anyone else who's within earshot.In fact, when Dodo (Sarandon) says to Ray "It's time we have a man in the family" it like she's handing the reins over to him. This is part of the film's happy ending which is nice, if unrealistic. But I liked both the ending and the entire film as it is engaging, has excellent acting, and is visually very downtown New York.
Alex Erzen
I was over the moon about this movie, since it's not often Hollywood produces something like this. We don't have many LGBTQ+ movies, and we sorely lack representation.But I was severely disappointed. Firstly, the movie isn't actually about Ray. The protagonist is Ray's mom, an 18-year-old in the body of a grown up (at some point she complains her lesbian mothers are breaking up with her, because they suggest she might move out of their house). She is trying and mostly fails to support Ray in transition (which is odd, since she mentions years of therapy with him), misgendering him several times throughout the movie and expressing doubts about the authenticity of his experience. She acts completely immaturely where Ray's father(s?) are involved, which is a major subplot for some reason. The biological father and one of the grandmothers often misgender him and direct transphobia at him. In addition, a lot of Ray's own experience of gender, conveyed through his videos, seems to be based off gender roles (him saying he'd rather be a race-car driver or a cowboy than a princess) and that made me doubt the writers actually did any research on trans individuals and gender identity.The fact is that the creators of the movie had an amazing opportunity to bring out an interesting story of someone that is often overlooked in film and thus can offer a new perspective to the viewer. Instead, they chose to push Ray into the background and focus on the emotionally immature mother and her weird love triangle. A FILM THAT WAS MADE TO HIGHLIGHT THE EXPERIENCE OF A STIGMATIZED AND UNDER-REPRESENTED MINORITY DEVOLVED TO THE POINT WHERE THE MAJORITY OF THE Plot line IS WHITE/RICH/STRAIGHT/CISGENDER CHARACTERS' DRAMA THAT CENTERS AROUND FURTHER STIGMATIZING/DISENFRANCHISING THAT SAME MINORITY. To me, the movie felt plastic. I don't know what it was trying to do, but it felt like the story was just an afterthought. If it ends up raising awareness somehow, great. But in the end, it's just a bad movie.
AD
