Movie Review Black Los Angeles

BlackNLA Movie Reviews

*****THE REEL DEAL: Reviewz from the Street*****

by Edwardo Jackson

BIASES: 30 (yikes!) year old black male; frustrated screenwriter who favors action, comedy, and glossy, big budget movies over indie flicks, kiddie flicks, and weepy Merchant Ivory fare

TRANSAMERICA (R)

MOVIE BIASES: Huffman's won everything but the Publisher's Clearinghouse Sweepstakes.

MAJOR PLAYERS: Felicity Huffman (TV's "Desperate Housewives), Kevin Zegers (Dawn of the Dead), and writer/director Duncan Tucker

Better late than never, right?

Bree (Huffman) is a pre-op transsexual, male-to-female. A week away from the final step in her transformation, sexual reassignment surgery, Bree finds out she had accidentally fathered a son she never knew she had, now a 17 year old street prostitute delinquent named Toby (Zegers). Forced to see him in order for her psychologist (Elizabeth Pena) to sign off on the surgery, Bree flies to New York to
bail Toby out, reluctantly taking him on a cross-country road trip to get to know him better and fulfill his latent dream of acting. But there's one catch: Bree doesn't tell him that she is still somewhat of a he.

From her hideously husky, "dude talks like a lady" voice to her prissy, overcompensating, etiquette-washed "femininity," Huffman's Bree springs to life from Tucker's well-characterized, detailed script. Although I may have seen a few better performances this year, Huffman's super-polite, grammar-checking, career student/receptacle of random knowledge falls right into the Academy's recent mandate of pretty women going ugly for Oscar glory. Squarer than a Volvo, Huffman
- scarves, girdles, and indiscriminate use of pink and all - creates an empathetic, wholly believable character, even though her natural genitalia "disgusts" her. Eventually, I even got used to that "Bette Davis with a smoker's cough" intonation of Bree's, finding it strangely endearing after a while. You just have to - Bree is such a
frickin' lady. This is a wonderful, heartfelt performance entirely devoid of judgment by Felicity Huffman.

Tucker's debut is ingratiatingly auspicious, more so as a writer than as a director. While the second act follows some road trip conventions that, nevertheless, go a long way in depicting character, it's the nutty latter part of the act, with the introduction of Bree's parents (Burt Young, Fionnula Flanagan), that comedically and dramatically soar. Flanagan, as Bree's mother Elizabeth, stumbles about brilliantly in a fog of her own character's making, a clouded world where her son
isn't a woman and her grandson actually loves her. Denial is more than a river in Egypt, Liz.

With a fair amount of full frontal nudity - for both sexes - and that initially freaky sounding voice of Bree's, "Transamerica" isn't going to be for everyone. But if you already like the skin you're in, this movie won't be much of a switch.

@@@ REELS
(THREE REELS)
It's pretty hot – go give it a shot.

Like what you read? Agree/disagree with The Reel Deal? Think he's talkin' out his...HUSH YO' MOUF! (I'm only talkin' about The Reel Deal!) Email him at ReelReviewz@aol.com!

Edwardo Jackson is the author of the novels EVER AFTER and NEVA HAFTA, (Villard/Random House), a writer for UrbanFilmPremiere.com, and an LA-based screenwriter. Visit his website at www.edwardojackson.com




			BlackNLA Movie Reviews ***THE REEL DEAL: Reviewz from the Street*** by Edwardo Jackson BIASES: 30 (yikes!) year old black male; frustrated screenwriter who favors action, comedy, and glossy, big budget movies over indie flicks, kiddie flicks, and weepy Merchant Ivory fare TRANSAMERICA (R) MOVIE BIASES: Huffman's won everything but the Publisher's Clearinghouse Sweepstakes. MAJOR PLAYERS: Felicity Huffman (TV's "Desperate Housewives), Kevin Zegers (Dawn of the Dead), and writer/director Duncan Tucker Better late than never, right? Bree (Huffman) is a pre-op transsexual, male-to-female. A week away from the final step in her transformation, sexual reassignment surgery, Bree finds out she had accidentally fathered a son she never knew she had, now a 17 year old street prostitute delinquent named Toby (Zegers). Forced to see him in order for her psychologist (Elizabeth Pena) to sign off on the surgery, Bree flies to New York to bail Toby out, reluctantly taking him on a cross-country road trip to get to know him better and fulfill his latent dream of acting. But there's one catch: Bree doesn't tell him that she is still somewhat of a he. From her hideously husky, "dude talks like a lady" voice to her prissy, overcompensating, etiquette-washed "femininity," Huffman's Bree springs to life from Tucker's well-characterized, detailed script. Although I may have seen a few better performances this year, Huffman's super-polite, grammar-checking, career student/receptacle of random knowledge falls right into the Academy's recent mandate of pretty women going ugly for Oscar glory. Squarer than a Volvo, Huffman - scarves, girdles, and indiscriminate use of pink and all - creates an empathetic, wholly believable character, even though her natural genitalia "disgusts" her. Eventually, I even got used to that "Bette Davis with a smoker's cough" intonation of Bree's, finding it strangely endearing after a while. You just have to - Bree is such a frickin' lady. This is a wonderful, heartfelt performance entirely devoid of judgment by Felicity Huffman. Tucker's debut is ingratiatingly auspicious, more so as a writer than as a director. While the second act follows some road trip conventions that, nevertheless, go a long way in depicting character, it's the nutty latter part of the act, with the introduction of Bree's parents (Burt Young, Fionnula Flanagan), that comedically and dramatically soar. Flanagan, as Bree's mother Elizabeth, stumbles about brilliantly in a fog of her own character's making, a clouded world where her son isn't a woman and her grandson actually loves her. Denial is more than a river in Egypt, Liz. With a fair amount of full frontal nudity - for both sexes - and that initially freaky sounding voice of Bree's, "Transamerica" isn't going to be for everyone. But if you already like the skin you're in, this movie won't be much of a switch. @@@ REELS (THREE REELS) It's pretty hot – go give it a shot. Like what you read? Agree/disagree with The Reel Deal? Think he's talkin' out his...HUSH YO' MOUF! (I'm only talkin' about The Reel Deal!) Email him at ReelReviewz@aol.com! Edwardo Jackson is the author of the novels EVER AFTER and NEVA HAFTA, (Villard/Random House), a writer for UrbanFilmPremiere.com, and an LA-based screenwriter. Visit his website at www.edwardojackson.com Â© 2004, Edwardo Jackson