XXY (2007)

So much average

Don't listen to the negative reviews

I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

XXY is a difficult movie to watch. It is violent and intrusive and strange and uncomfortable. The bleak seashores and small, cramped house, coupled with low, blue-green lighting and dirty windows and mirrors make the viewer feel as though they should not be there. We are seeing into the secretive life of a small family that has intentionally separated itself from the busyness of Buenos Aires in order to gain a sense of privacy. This is part of what makes it so interesting; it feels very intimate. There are a number of scenes in which Alex, an underage teenager, is naked from the waist up. While this seems inappropriate and uncomfortable initially, I think that it makes the audience question why we feel the need to sexualize and censor a teenager's body in the first place. The ambiguity of Alex's sex and gender lead us to another question: would we be uncomfortable if Alex looked more masculine? What combination of age, nudity, and gender makes us feel as though their body should not be seen? The film does not answer these questions. It also leaves a number of other ambiguities. Alex''s gender, for instance, is not conclusively stated. At the end, they decide that there is "nada que elegir" - nothing to choose. Although it is clear that they will not grow to "be a woman", Alex doesn't choose to "become a man" either. What is determined is that they are done trying to be something they're not. They are done taking pills, getting operations, and moving around the country to find some unachievable fresh start. What is determined is that Alex's parents will be there to support them no matter what they choose. This is the message of the movie. Life is uncomfortable, ambiguous, and hard to place. Gender is complex. Family is complex. Identities change. What we can all do is to simply be ourselves, respect others, and protect our loved ones. XXY is a highly intricate look into a seemingly unusual situation. It is not a feel-good movie; instead, it makes us think.

I actually think this is one of the better inter-sex movies out there, even though I think it stalls somewhat on its own content. But what really irks me are reading reviews with verbiage like;patient, abnormality, defect, diagnoses and the like. This isn't about a 'medical disorder', but very possible another gender that defies traditional male/female definitions. Since there's always been sexual reassignment surgery with these people, many at birth, who's to say if left alone they wouldn't morph into happy, adjusted individuals that just form another non-traditional gender? I think if you watch this movie through non-traditional eyes, you will most likely get more from it. Alex makes the plea at one point;"Why do I have to be cut at all?" Yes indeed, why? Inter-sex people have been around since the beginning of the human race. The medical community traditionally has made these people lab rats, why don't we set them free?

Argentine author, screenwriter, producer and director Lucia Puenzo's feature film debut which she wrote, is inspired by a short story called "Cinismo" by Argentine author, musician and director Sergio Bizzio. It premiered in the 46th International Critics' Week section at the 60th Cannes International Film Festival in 2007, was screened in the Vanguard section at the 32nd Toronto International Film Festival in 2007, was shot on locations in Uruguay and is an Argentina-France-Spain co-production which was produced by Spanish producer José Maria Morales. It tells the story about a fifteen-year-old virgin and student named Alex whom has been expelled from school for having hit her best friend named Vando. Alex lives in a house in a beach town in Uruguay with her father named Kraken who is a marine biologist and her mother named Suli, and one day she and her family is visited by a surgeon named Ramiro, his wife named Erika and their 15-year-old son named Álvaro. Distinctly and subtly directed by Latin-American filmmaker Lucia Puenzo, this quietly paced fictional tale which is narrated from multiple viewpoints though mostly from the main character's point of view, draws a humane and reflective portrayal of an Argentine intersex person whom has stopped taking the medication which is preventing the male hormones in her body from growing and who becomes physically attracted to a same-aged boy who thinks he has befriended a girl. While notable for it's distinct, atmospheric and naturalistic milieu depictions, reverent cinematography by cinematographer Natasha Braier and use of sound, colors and light, this character-driven and narrative-driven story about identity where being born with both male and female external sex organs and having to decide which gender one is to live with becomes a heartrendingly conflicting choice for a person whom has been treated by some as a freak and who sometimes calls herself a monster as that is what she thinks she is regarded as, depicts a remarkably perceptive study of character and contains a great and timely score by composers Daniel Tarrab and Andrés Goldstein. This biological, densely conversational, mindfully romantic and authentic coming-of-age drama from the late 2000s which is set in a resort town called Punta del Este in Uruguay in the 21st century and where a father and mother whom has moved from the capital city of Argentina to get away from prying people, commendably allows their child to make her own decisions concerning who she wants to be, is impelled and reinforced by it's cogent narrative structure, substantial character development, subtle continuity, rare graceful aura, scene between Alex and a girlfriend taking a shower together where a human being's sense of being bilateral and incomplete is poignantly envisaged, the profoundly gripping acting performance by Argentine actress Inés Efron and the good acting performances by Argentine actor and director Martin Piroyansky and Argentine actor, screenwriter and director Ricardo Darin. A compassionately incisive and naturally cinematographic narrative feature which gained the Critics' Week Grand Prize at the 60th Cannes Film Festival in 2007.

A very watchable story, for that it rates a high score. * The detail, first viewing it did not gel fully as the story is told, I needed to head towards symbolism in order to consider the story as fitting together well. I first heard of XXY genes in the mid 1960's. I used to read a weekly science magasine at our school library and there was a short piece about the gene being mostly liable to be found among the inmates of prisons. The IMDb Message Board for this feature considers that as a dated understanding, theory has moved on a lot since then. The MB also discusses why the title XXY is unlikely to refer to genes. I get the impression, the last decade or two, that the transgendered and intersex, maybe the gay world too, are under pressures to become criminalised. I liked how XXY feature can be an illustration of part of that. This is an teen intersex boy under pressure. Some do not consider that he should be a boy. Some consider that they have a right to walk over him. A formula for a teen to explode, but who will get the blame for that? So there is also the teen self identity problem. * Transamerica (2005), also extremely watchable, has the central character moving towards gender related surgery while still having closet type trans fears. As in XXY, this is someone who needs a healthy maturity, but the pressure is against that happening. This shows what I now understand to be a not unusual problem for trans to have to come to terms with, just one does not get a sympathetic view of the closet type fears. When the UK gender recognition bill was going though Westminster the trans discussion was very hidden, even in the trans world. The major trans influence on the bill was to allow secrecy, and that is there in the resultant law, but pushing for that appeared to make the law makers less sympathetic, the new law is much less inclusive than what I really need. I have not come across a worthwhile and sympathetic analysis of these fears sometimes still being prevalent in what would appear to be the more mature trans. From a trans point of view the fears can easily appear to be justified, we live in an area were accepted critical ways of society are typically destructive to us. The underclasses have a similar problem. Bad shall be stopped, bad shall be overcome, an imperative that has to be good so why do I consider that the underclasses and LGBT tend to be thrown into everlasting living hell because of that? Why do I consider that good is often a special form of bad.