Film Review: Delicate, Touching Tale of Complex Adolescence in ‘Tomboy’

Submitted by BrianTT on January 26, 2012 - 1:56pm

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Rating: 4.0/5.0

CHICAGO – “Tomboy” is a delicate, sensitive story of adolescence that’s not often told in cinema. It is the tale of a young girl who would rather be a boy and those days before gender confusion hits puberty like a runaway train. The film’s greatest accomplishment is writer/director Celine Sciamma’s stunning ability to draw natural, believable performances from her adolescent cast, who never hit a false note in this moving film.

The press materials and some critics have somewhat incorrectly written that “Tomboy“‘s lead character Laure (Zoe Heran) is “mistaken for a boy” after she moves with her family to a new neighborhood as if it is not completely intentional on her part. It is clearly a decision (she says Mikael when a girl asks for her name) and not mere mistake by her new group of friends, which makes for a far more interesting take on identity than you might be expecting.

Read Brian Tallerico’s full review of “Tomboy” in our reviews section.

She may not even fully understand why yet, but Laure is more comfortable as a boy – she wears her hair incredibly short, doesn’t wear earrings or makeup, and would be thought of as a male child by nearly anyone who saw her. But Sciamma doesn’t overplay the gender issue until she needs to, often just letting these kids be kids. We know that Laure’s secret life as Mikael will almost certainly have to come to an end, especially after she becomes an object of affection for Lisa (Jeanne Dison), but it is used as an undercurrent to typical child activity like playing soccer and dancing to music that is filmed with stunning naturalism. “Tomboy” gains power through its realism, not as an “issue movie.”

Continue reading for Brian Tallerico’s full “Tomboy” review.

“Tomboy” stars Zoe Haran, Jeanne Dison, Malonn Levana, Sophie Cattani, and Mathieu Demy. It was written and directed by Celine Sciamma. It will be released at the Music Box Theatre in Chicago on January 27th, 2012.