A powerful exploration of the experience of being intersex.
Before birth, Alex (Inez Efron) is diagnosed as having characteristics of both males and females, but her parents opt against surgery to make her "consistent." As the movie opens, she has stopped taking feminizing medications and is feeling urges to express her/his sexuality.
Alex's family has moved from their native Argentina to Uruguay to escape the discomforts that come with not fitting neatly into categories. But it's an uneasy transplantation.
No one seems comfortable in "XXY," least of all the enigmatic Alex, who has broken a male friend's nose in a fight, for reasons that aren't clear. Her father is quietly supportive of her, despite some pretty anti-social tendencies; her mom seems shellshocked at the family's overall situation in life, and the teenage son of visiting friends, Alvaro, at first shuns and then encourages Alex's sexual urgency. It seems that he, too, is trying to figure out who he wants to be.
Although hard to watch at times, "XXY" definitely captures interest. It's recommended as a companion piece to "The Mystery of Alexina" (1985) and the recent release "Every Body."
Before birth, Alex (Inez Efron) is diagnosed as having characteristics of both males and females, but her parents opt against surgery to make her "consistent." As the movie opens, she has stopped taking feminizing medications and is feeling urges to express her/his sexuality.
Alex's family has moved from their native Argentina to Uruguay to escape the discomforts that come with not fitting neatly into categories. But it's an uneasy transplantation.
No one seems comfortable in "XXY," least of all the enigmatic Alex, who has broken a male friend's nose in a fight, for reasons that aren't clear. Her father is quietly supportive of her, despite some pretty anti-social tendencies; her mom seems shellshocked at the family's overall situation in life, and the teenage son of visiting friends, Alvaro, at first shuns and then encourages Alex's sexual urgency. It seems that he, too, is trying to figure out who he wants to be.
Although hard to watch at times, "XXY" definitely captures interest. It's recommended as a companion piece to "The Mystery of Alexina" (1985) and the recent release "Every Body."