Transamerica: "Life is a journey. Bring an open mind."

Transamerica documents the story of middle-aged pre-op transgender woman who is just a week away from getting the final surgery that will complete her journey to womanhood. Unfortunately, her life is turned upside down when she gets a terribly timed phone call about a son she didn't know she had who is being thrown into jail and she's the only one responsible for him. His mother is dead and his step father is (unknown to her) abusive. Thus sparks the touching and family-driven road trip across America with her him at her side. His aspiration is to be a gay porn star whereas hers is simply to have a sense of normality in her life. The son, Toby (Kevin Zegers), has absolutely no idea the female 'Christian Missionary' that Bree is pretending to be is actually, technically, a male. Oh, and his father. The plot revolves around their dysfunctional relationship, the ethics of family development and sexuality.

I thought Felicity Huffman excelled as Bree Osbourne, previously know as Stanley, the star of the film. I've never seen her in anything other that Desperate Housewives and it was both a pleasure and a surprise to see her completely stealing every scene she's in (which is almost every one). I've definitely gained a new respect for this amazing actress because she's absolutely superb playing Bree. I actually found it very, very effective to have a woman playing a male playing a woman. Confused? Yeah, but it's the perfect casting choice. Kevin Zegers, although he gets much less screentime, remained a terrorific actor in potraying emotionally ruined Toby, the bisexual street hustler.

Felicity and Kevin

Like most people, I didn't expect to be able to relate to this. The plight of somebody who is so completely different to myself, and probably most people that watch this film, seems a little alienating. Fortunately, with the help of the talented actors/actresses and fantastic writing, the film focuses on the journey the two troubled characters are undertaking rather than making the transgender issue the obvious catalyst. Everything is done tastefully and thoughtfully; although there are a few scenes which are rather disturbing. And even though they are, they're completely valid and needed.

At the heart, this film is about love. About loving yourself and loving others. Bree is desperate to love someone, to be loved but mostly just to love herself. Toby has never had any affection shown to him other than sex which he is completely dependent on and his ability to form relationships with people is completely destroyed.



Transamerica is real without being gritty, it's much less difficult to watch than other films that tackle the same issues (The Crying Game) and isn't essentially a tragedy. And despite the fact it brings up many issues (drugs, prostitution, questionable parenting) the film never goes off on a tangent but focuses on Bree and Toby's relationship. The acting is amazing, the dialog is realistic and witty and the overall product is a very heart warming, touching film. I recommend it to anyone, especially to people who want to broaden their minds or might have negative views on the transgender community.

Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging

Okay, okay, I know what you're thinking. This film looks pretty shit, right? Another teeny-bopper fiasco that you won't be interested in... and you're probably right. I'm not going to recommend this to everyone, definitely no. This does only cater to one market, actually, make that two: teenage girls and people-that-aren't-teenage-girls that still love teenage-girl films. Unfortunately, I'm the latter.

Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging follows the tale of our Heroine, Georgia Groome, who is - as many people were at that age - only focused on three things: boys, boys... and boys. Yeah, it's a tried-and-tested recipe but I thought this one had some fairly surprising results.

If you can get over the cheesy plot, corny acting, screaming 14-year-old girls, the fact I'm sure it deviates from the book (I've never read them, though) and the slightly.. 5-years-ago script, it's actually a quite pleasant, feel good film.
For teenage girls and the like. But I digress.

The great costume failure.

I went in with no expectations, if however a little cynical. The teeny-bopper, tween films never really deliver. And if they do, they're delivering the wrong thing. However, I was charmed to pieces and completely won over by these British, screaming, loud fourteen year olds. Totally and utterly.

The film is a total cringe fest, there's no doubt about it. Is there any doubt from the synopsis?

"The story centers on a 14-year-old girl who keeps a diary about the ups and downs of being a teenager, including the things she learns about kissing."

But beneath the cringe, there's a certain sense of motherly protection over our leading lady. Whether you're a girl, or a boy, we've all been 14. We've all made total idiots of ourselves, done silly things and generally expected the world to end for us. This film, in my opinion, manages to capture the horrifically embarrassing moments of pre-teenhood in a charming, cute fashion and really makes you root for a happy ending.

And, as with all forms of this genre, there is one. Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging does not try to break molds, but remains a good salute to the genre and the phrase "don't try to fix what's not broken."

The girls.

If you feel like having a film completely set out for you, makes you cringe and roll your eyes (but secretly think this is actually really good, but I'm not going to let anyone think I'm enjoying myself!) then you should check this out. And, as a person with an extremely dry sense of humor, this teenyboopertweenyhyper film actually managed to make me laugh out loud.
More than once.

Doomsday

This movie earns a giant 'what the fuck were they thinking.' I'm sure, loyal readers, that you know that when a review starts off like that you shouldn't hope for much. And you really shouldn't regarding this bizarre mindfuck of a movie. Let's start with the plot synopsis, shall we?

"A futuristic action thriller where a team of people work to prevent a disaster threatening the future of the human race."

Sound familiar? It only just describes about a million films in the last decade with exactly the same plots. 28 Days/Weeks later, Planet Terror, Resident Evil, etc, etc, etc. The only difference being is that Doomsday doesn't create zombies, but rather decimates the human race like a good little virus. No, the antagonists in this film aren't raised from the dead, infected with rage... they're fucking faux-punk-rock, metalhead, crazy cannibals.

Although this film is described as a homage to older, similar films (Mad Max, Escape from New York..) the film takes no creative liberty and creates a film I felt I'd seen a million times before. Somebody has said; "Homage without innovation isn't homage. It's karaoke." Which I think describes the film perfectly.

This film suffers from an identity crisis of the highest value, if you turn yourself off completely from the plot and just want to enjoy a bit of action and gore. Go for it. But unlike films that do this well (here's looking at you Planet Terror), the characters are dull, the scenarios unbelievable and distracting (medieval castles, what?!). The whole thing was just... eh.

The best bits were the intentional gore-comedic parts and some of the fights. So you'll come out of this movie with approximately three laughs and two 'omg's at the action scenes. Joy.

If you want to watch this, for god's sake make sure you rent it and don't waste the time and effort to see it at the cinema.