Tomboy (2011)

Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

Clever, believable, and super fun to watch. It totally has replay value.

The story-telling is good with flashbacks.The film is both funny and heartbreaking. You smile in a scene and get a soulcrushing revelation in the next.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

This movie touched me in a way I wasn't expecting it to. I watched the movie a couple of years ago when it was first put on Netflix, but I recently watched it again and couldn't help but think "The title of the movie is wrong". When you look up the meaning of Tomboy you find that tomboy means a girl who enjoys rough, noisy activities traditionally associated with boys which means that a Tomboy still identifies as a girl but Laure, or I should better say Mikäel, does not identify as a girl, he is a boy. The title of the movie might mislead some viewers to believe they are watching a movie about, well, a tomboy when in reality they are watching a movie about a boy trying to find himself. He might not explicitly say "I am a boy" but his actions speak for themselves. Mikael is uncomfortable in his body, and feel like one, he stares at his flat chest for long periods of time in the mirror and we can see his desire for it to stay that way, but we know it won't, and when he is invited to go swim with his friends he decided to create his own boy swim trunks and a little bulge so he really does look as a boy. He doesn't identify with his birth given name Laure. He identifies as Mikael, a boy. If Mikael was a tomboy he would might still present himself as Laure and would still wear a girl swimsuit and a shirt while playing soccer. I don't think the director of the movie understood the character of Mikäel completely. If she did then she would have known that the title of the movie doesn't have anything to do with the main character. There are several instances in the movie where I sensed a misunderstanding of the character, specifically the ending where Mikäel says his name is Laure to his friend, the ending makes you believe that he would come to terms with being a girl but I think that if you paid close attention you know this will not happen. There could have been a better ending to the movie but it still is a pretty good movie that I believe people should watch, as it is a story that will touch your hearth.

This film was touching in many aspects. Laure wanted to be someone she wasn't, and she was accidentally given the opportunity to do so thanks to Lisa talking to her as if she were a boy upon their initial encounter. She crafts a male alter ego, Mikaël, and eventually builds on it, having what resembled a love affair with Lisa under her alter ego. I had a feeling that the truth about "Mikaël" would come out sooner or later, but the way in which it came out (and its aftermath) in the film was quite harsh, IMO. I think the humiliation that Laure endured could have been reduced if Laure's mother had simply accompanied Laure to a gathering of all the kids she had played with and then announced Mikaël's true gender/identity to them at the gathering and then continuing to watch over them. Also, the ending seems rather abrupt. It makes me wonder what Lisa's intentions were - did she simply want to find out Mikaël's true identity, or did she want to build a new relationship with Laure as her true feminine self? Since Lisa had mentioned earlier that "Mikaël" did not exist on the class lists, I would have had her continue by saying something along the lines of "Oh, so you are indeed in my class. See you in class then!"

The ten year-old Laure (Zoé Héran) and her six-year old sister Jeanne (Malonn Lévana) move to a Parisian suburb near the nature with their parents. Laure befriends the children in the neighborhood but for an unknown reason, she tells that she is a boy, Mickäel. Soon he becomes popular among the new friends and the teenager Lisa (Jeanne Disson) feels attracted by him. When Laure's mother, who is pregnant, discovers that her daughter had lied about her gender to the children, she takes an attitude."Tomboy" is a different story of childhood, with a tomboy that lures her new friends and becomes a popular boy. Zoé Héran and Malonn Lévana are amazing and have magnificent performances. Unfortunately the stupid attitude of Lisa destroys the story. Children are mean in this type of situation and a mother should never expose her daughter the way Lisa does. She should seek professional support for Laure and herself to understand whether the attention-seeking of her daughter was just a way to get new friends or whether she is a transgender girl to properly deal with the situation. Depending on the medical orientation, the family should even need to move to another neighborhood to protect her daughter. My vote is seven.Title (Brazil): "Tomboy"

"Comedy just pokes at problems, rarely confronts them squarely. Drama is like a plate of meat and potatoes, comedy is rather the dessert, a bit like meringue." - Woody Allen.Whether we like to admit it or not, we all hunger for acceptance in this tumultuous world in one way or another. Film has been my primary source for coping with the unfortunate, and it has so far been a rather successful one. I've always found the best thing to be able to do in a film is to relate to an issue or immerse yourself so deep in the story you feel you are one of the characters and are not just watching them.Céline Sciamma's Tomboy could very well be that film for a young teenage girl who is tirelessly resisting normal teenage girl conventions. Instead of fighting to look like a "Bratz" or "Barbie" doll they are striving to be accepting by their male friends and couldn't care less about the latest trends, what the reality shows are depicting, etc.Our lead character is the shy but noble ten year old Laure (Zoé Héran) whose family has just moved to rural France over the summer. Upset and isolated, she introduces herself to the neighboring kids as "Mickael," and begins to interact with them in a more confident way on her part, becoming more involved with their games, doing male-orientated activities and things of different natures.Laure is very close with her younger sister, Jeanne (Malonn Lévana, who is cute as a button), who is mostly unaware of Laure's "Mickael" alter-ego. It isn't long before Laure also becomes close to Lisa (Jeanne Disson), a young girl who lives close to them and is singled out as the only girl in a group of several males. Lisa begins to take comfort in the idea that she has a boy she can finally connect with.The idea of tomboyish behavior and cross-dressing in the world of film is really not as new as some may believe. We saw this same sort of thing when Corey Haim fell in love with Nicole Eggert's beautiful cheerleader character in Just One of the Girls, a comedy I truly adored, and most recently, Amanda Bynes in She's the Man. This too is an idea that doesn't shy away from the sitcom-scene either. Case and point, the Zoey 101 episode "Girls Will Be Boys." All three of those characters in those examples dress up like the opposite sex to prove some sort of a point, while Laure does it because she truly feels comfortable in skin not her own.The true star here is Zoé Héran, who chooses one hell of an acting debut. She immerses herself into a character that is considerably deep and filled to the prim of poignancy and despair. She doesn't put on a spry, cutesy look for the camera as some child stars tend to bask in. She really doesn't care what you think of her character. She is directed by Céline Sciamma, whose previous film, Water Lilies, a film exploring the sexual awakenings of teenage girls. Sciamma is like the French Larry Clark, only more mild and driven more by close character examinations rather than constant exploiting. It goes without saying that both are fantastic in their own respected field.This is a surprising film, tender in its direction and genuine to its previous formula that relied heavily on humor. Never have we truly gotten into the drama that will inevitably loom over someone who does something like this. We see those who do this as people who want an answer or want to prove some sort of point. Laure doesn't want to prove a point, but this solely for personal acceptance and not immediate gratification.Starring: Zoé Héran, Malonn Lévana, Jeanne Disson, Sophie Cattani, and Mathieu Demy. Directed by: Céline Sciamma.