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XXY (2007) More at IMDb Pro »

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36 out of 45 people found the following comment useful :-
Daring, ambiguous and hard to forget, 17 January 2008
9/10
Author: Max_cinefilo89 from Italy

First there was Sofia Coppola, who made her directorial debut with the all but safe Virgin Suicides. Now Lucìa Puenzo, another in-bred filmmaker (her father is one of Argentina's most famous directors), has chosen an even more uncomfortable subject for her first steps behind the camera, and the result is a beautiful, bold and oddly touching picture.

Much of the movie's power derives from the astounding central performance by Inés Efron, who plays the troubled Alex, a 15-year old girl living in a village by the sea in Uruguay. It was her father, marine biologist Kraken (Ricardo Darìn) who decided to move there from Buenos Aires, and for a good reason: his daughter suffers from a rare and frankly embarrassing medical condition, the nature of which is hinted at in the title. It has already caused her to break her best friend's nose, and more problems will come as the family receives an unexpected visit from a surgeon and his young son Alvaro, with whom Alex embarks on an awkward relationship.

XXY tackles a delicate issue with great care, allowing both sides to speak their mind (although the movie isn't really about taking sides) and addressing the problem without trivializing it. Most surprisingly, it doesn't get as explicit as other films with similar themes (Boys Don't Cry comes to mind), except for the wonderfully shocking climax (in every sense) of one of Alex's encounters with Alvaro. It's a scene of unexpected poignancy, especially considering the contrast between the brutality of that moment and Alex's visible vulnerability. Therein lies the movie's core: it is not a traditional teen story, nor is it a conventional issue picture; at its center we have a person who is seemingly unable to accept herself, as well as her complex bonds with other people.

It is those connections that the director analyzes with startling precision in the second half, with particular attention to the way the two kids relate with their fathers (close-ups are very important here, as the devastated looks on the great actors' faces act as a counterbalance to the seductive landscape). And there lies the biggest shock: Alex and Kraken, despite the difficulties they're going through, manage to get closer, while Alvaro's apparently perfect life is shattered in a brief, bleak lesson of cynicism from his old man. As a matter of fact, that might be too much: that scene is just a little too cold, too cruel to really feel at home in the picture. However, the rest of XXY holds up in an almost perfect way, with its strong story, affecting cast and an open ending which, despite being frustrating at first, makes perfect sense: this kind of story cannot really end.

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18 out of 22 people found the following comment useful :-
Contemporary way of looking at Hermaphrodism., 7 October 2007
8/10
Author: davidtraversa-1 from Spain

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

I Just saw this new movie from the Argentinian cinema and found it deeply moving.

To me the idea of showing the inner struggle of an hermaphrodite with profound respect was a First. I never saw a movie treating this theme before (And never in a Hollywood product!!).

Not only his/her struggle, but both his/hers parents. His/hers parents lived 15 years (the child's present age as shown in the movie) of sheer torment. What could they do about the problem? Where could they go to talk about it without raising eyebrows? - the world can be terribly cruel with anyone "different".

I remember only one scene with an albino hermaphrodite in a frontal nude scene in a Fellini movie -"Satyricon"- But there, it was used only as shock value. A freak case. Not here! This is a very humane movie, very tender in it's treatment of a very delicate problem (Could it be because the director is a woman?).

And the beautiful, truly beautiful ending! in the past a character like this one was always killed at the end: It drowned, it fell in an abyss. It perished, no matter how. It did not have the right to live.

It seems that now we have grown more adult somehow; in this movie, not only the hermaphrodite refuses to be operated on, to become either a man or a woman, NO! she decides to remain what she is: A naturally born human being with BOTH SEXES. And really...Why not?? Great film! great, GREAT film!

Technically though, I found a couple of faults: Although my mother tongue is Spanish, after a while I had to put the subtitles on, since almost all the actors (Mainly Ricardo Darin -the father of the hermaphrodite) go through the movie mumbling their words, sort of like Marlon Brando used to do thanks to the Actor's Studio's Method, and I was missing part of the dialogue (My hearing is excellent, but the straining wasn't worth it, and I was using headphones!); also they talked in extremely low voices, so, since the sea rumble or the rain noise are on most of the time as background sound (They are on location in an Uruguayan beach town), they drowned the actors voices most of the time.

I imagine the director wanted to give the feeling of casual, nonchalant conversation. Fine, you can find the way to do it employing other ways, not the way it was done in this movie (Maybe they didn't have enough budget, or the sound wasn't top drawer, I don't know).

The other fault was the length of some scenes..., it looked like one of those old 60s movies from Sweden, where the actors were shown on profile, looking to the right into the horizon for two full minutes without speaking a word or moving at all.

But these two faults are minor really. This film makes you think about the very wrong and terribly unjust ways of contemporary society when looking at minorities. Excellent all actors and a superb director.

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5 out of 5 people found the following comment useful :-
the story of ambiguity, 31 December 2007
7/10
Author: Julio Marinelli from Argentina

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

This is, perhaps, one of the most auspicious directorial debuts in Argentine cinema, a film whose Technical quality is flawless; containing also some surprising performances delivered by Ines Efron as the main character an Darin as his troubled father. This is a movie about personal choices and the confusion of the sexual awakening, rather than a movie about a unusual physical condition the girl has.

The middle and most dramatic scene is were Alex and Alvaro have sex in the barn, but i think this particular scene is not important for the discovery of Alex condition that you can easily guess from the movie title, but actually by the fact that, given the chance to choose what to be, She will not choose to change, even against her parents assumptions that she would want to be a girl. Towards the end of the movie we see how she was rise being both sex at he same time as an addition, not a subtraction. There is only one scene that I believe doesn't work well enough, that is the personal and cold chat Alvaro and his father have at the beach, it is just too forced and unnecessary in a movie that is not at all explicit but actually beautifully graphic.

This is a fantastic debut for Lucia Puenzo, who manages cinematography and the technical aspects as a professional, delivering this excellent depiction of the ambiguity of sexual awakening were the choices that we make are the things that define what we are beyond physical aspects.

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5 out of 6 people found the following comment useful :-
Choices, 15 November 2007
7/10
Author: jruvira from San Nicolás, Argentina

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

I wouldn't like to include spoilers, but what follows may give you some hints. Sorry.

Some questions that may help you choose to watch this movie or not -especially when you haven't seen the trailers before (as is usually my case): - Are you open minded enough? - Are you able to feel empathy with any confused human being? - Do you think that, when facing a choice, you may choose and you may not choose at all?

XXY depicts a universal part of our lives: the discovery of our own sexuality. What's so particular here is that Alex is given more choices, and none falls into any categorization whatsoever. I mean, she/he may not be homosexual if she/he chooses girls as her/his primary object of desire. She/he may also choose men, and she/he wouldn't be gay at all!

There are some shocking scenes (don't choose this movie for a romantic evening!), nothing unbearable for an open-minded viewer. In fact, you'll see them with a smile if you don't expect them. You'll say "of course, Alex is really able to do that... I hadn't noticed!".

And the ending is, in my personal point of view, exactly the way that situation may be resolved. May be complex for many people, but for me it's just perfect.

Technically, sound is extremely awful. It reminds me of the movies Lucía Puenzo's father used to do: back in the eighties, most Argentinean movies had a really bad sound treatment. Maybe her father paid some assistance in that topic... being Argentine myself, I left subtitles on just in case I missed something. And they proved to be very helpful. The set up is pretty "fairy-taley" for my taste: it makes you feel characters like Alex are only allowed to exist, isolated, in remote, far far away places. It resembles, somewhat, to Pan's Labyrinth's atmosphere (it's just a resemblance, XXY has nothing to do with Pan's Labyrinth... don't go and watch it after XXY). I don't mean this story should be located inside a metropolitan environment, but suburban at least. Would help us see Alex just like the girl/boy next door.

XXY is a pleasant and moving experience. I hope you all enjoy it as I did.

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4 out of 5 people found the following comment useful :-
She's A Boy/He's A Girl, 3 September 2008
9/10
Author: Seamus2829 from United States

As everybody knows, adolescence is a roller coaster ride for the seven odd years from 12 to 19 (and sometimes even longer). Add the premise of being a 15 year old Hermaphrodite,and things can get even scarier. This is the story of a 15 year old Argentine girl,living on the Argentine coastline. A visit from another couple,with their 15 year old son makes this for an unusual,but sensitively played drama that in the hands of another director would/could be easily turned into crass exploitation. Granted,there is sexual experimentation aplenty,but this is handled with taste (don't expect a John Waters-esquire treatment here---not like in Pink Flamingo's,anyway). This is a well written,directed,filmed & acted out drama about mature subject matter. No rating here (it wasn't submitted for an rating from the M.P.A.A.),but contains some very mature subject matter,including a rather uncomfortable sexual harassment scene).

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4 out of 5 people found the following comment useful :-
Boy Meets Girl - In Spades, 26 December 2007
8/10
Author: writers_reign from London, England

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

I heard a lot of good things about this movie so I decided to give it a whirl though I can't claim to be a fan of Argentinean cinema nor too wild about 'controversial' subjects but in spite of an appalling soundtrack - and I caught it in a top-of-the-line multiplex - its ultimate sensitivity won me over. Apparently the first-time director Lucia Puenzo is the daughter of a well-known (presumabmly domestic) Argentinian director and the fact that she is female may have something to do with the delicate way she handles the story of a fifteen year old hermaphrodite facing parental pressure to opt for one sex or the other and sign up for the applicable surgery. To everyone's credit the film avoids the almost obligatory tragic ending in such cases usually involving suicide or 'accidental' death and thus resulting in a 'clean' ending; far from it; in this case the person involved opts to go through life just as he/she is and deal with each problem as it occurs. Not for everyone, of course, but a brave film that deserves to find its audience.

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1 out of 1 people found the following comment useful :-
An unusual coming-of-age, 31 August 2008
9/10
Author: herjoch from Germany

Hermaphrodites or intersexuals,as they are called today - imho a slightly pejorative expression - are a rare theme in contemporary art; I can only think of Euginides book "Middlesex". The more it is surprising,that "XXY" comes from Argentine, a country not especially prominent in modern gender discourses. But Luisa Puenza impresses in her first feature film with a sensibility and open-mindedness,which will last in the memory for a long time.Puberty is always a difficult state between two identities: Not longer a child and not yet an adult.For the main protagonist Alex that problem doubles,because for her there is also the question of her future sexual identity.Society demands a clear decision.Like the language,which cannot find an expression for his/her existence - the adults alternately speak of "her" or "him" -, so the medicine aims at subjecting everyone to its sexual bipolarity. With witty dialogs and panache the film proclaims the right of being different and of searching one's own sexual niche. But luckily it's far from being dogmatic or didactic.It also understands the position of the parents to give their child a kind of shelter and save it from the confrontation with society.What the film openly criticizes are the operations, or should I better say amputations shortly after birth. The acting is generally fine, especially by Efron("Glue") and Darin.The missing star is the result of little flaws: In some places it too symbolically conceived: It takes place at the coast,which combines land and water; the father working as a marine biologist for sea turtles,whose sex cannot be defined from outside.Such clear hints wouldn't have been necessary. Luckily in our modern advanced society it is for an individual easier possible to define its own "normality" and fight for it, though it will be a lifelong fight.The film shows that in a way encouraging the viewers.

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0 out of 1 people found the following comment useful :-
Just good intentions (but excellent players ), 2 May 2008
7/10
Author: gbx06 from Mexico

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

I confess that what most caught my attention about the film was to know that it won the prize of critics week at Cannes Film Festival and this was my great motivation. Less or nothing I knew about the plot, I only knew what was necessary, a hermaphrodite girl trough her puberty and physical problems.

But even with the controversy that a topic like this could generate or the different ways in which we can tackle this problem, I found myself in front of a movie that only uses this fact like a pretext for telling a story much more deep and universal: the parent-child relationship. So even that the film is moving in dangerous and turbulent waters it maintains by two main characters played by Darin and Palacios.

So while the movie shows the tribulations of a young woman seen as a freak and the sexual doubts of a "normal" teenager, the real tension focuses on the relationship of the parents which are the two faces of a same coin. So while a parent tries to understand and help her daughter to choose an operation, the other one despises his "healthy" son for believing him something useless (the campfire scene is really excellent).

Unfortunately, even when the movie gets anthology moments the lack of a decisive action to deepen squarely on the discrimination issue and hatred to everything that we think different from normal (like sometime Boys don't cry made it), so the director Lucia Puenzo never takes risks to go beyond of a politically correct film (even with their "violations") where the fable's end is just a closer look to the differences in a general way. For this reasons, the film is only good intentions even when everything else is almost perfect.

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3 out of 7 people found the following comment useful :-
shocking in an uncommon way, 4 January 2008
9/10
Author: claudiarefresh from France

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

It is probably the most shocking move I've seen. It wasn't only the scene which is shocking, what shocked me is how a human being can live like this, being tortured by who she/he really is. How pathetic if we can't even love the way we are! Just because we are different?? I felt sad and I cried when she was almost raped by a group of boys, what she got was the worst discrimination a human being could face. But she has no right to defend for herself, the way her body is. Just because she is different!

I was truly moved by how parents' love could be, the real acceptance with someone we love, is the real family love.

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4 out of 9 people found the following comment useful :-
Worth watching, 5 March 2008
10/10
Author: louiseaj08 from United Kingdom

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

I saw it yesterday and thought it was great. Not so sure about the ending which was a bit open ended but it was pretty good all the same. The girl (Ines Efron) who plays Alex is a PRETTY good actress. I quite like the character of her father and thought the guy who played him was really good as well. There were several main characters in the film yet all their emotions and viewpoints were portrayed clearly. They all got so say their part. There was no focusing on just Alex all the time. The film was the right duration, set in the right locations, the soundtrack...I can't actually remember a sound track. Maybe some more incidental music could have been used. Not huge hits or anything, just music for effect.. I think it as there though because somehow the feelings still came anyway. For Lucia Puenzo's first film...I'm impressed. Yeah, all in all it was good and I think it is worth watching. Go see it.

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