Well I haven't done much blogging lately as I was pretty tied up with moving to another city and working like crazy, but yesterday I had a chance to sit down and watch some movies that left me thinking.

The first was Romeo is Bleeding which I was pretty excited to find on Netflix. Then I watched it and found myself rather disappointed. Here were my problems with it, other than the overdone, predictable plot. #1: I was rooting for Lena Olin's character, who was the villain. I didn't care at all about the protagonist as he was kind of a jerk. #2: the female characters were poorly written male fantasies, not real characters. Juliette Lewis was only there to dance around in lingerie. Annabella Sciorra's character really didn't do much of anything, and even Lena Olin's Mona Demarkov served as a representation of a male fantasy version of a woman, although at least she got to kick some ass along the way. But in all honesty, she spends most of the movie in a lingerie dress thing and sleeps with the main character for no real reason. I didn't even bother to watch the end of the movie. I read the synopsis and then moved on to something better.


My second movie worth noting yesterday was an Argentine film called XXY. This film is about an intersex teenager named Alex. Alex takes pills that help her appear more female. Her parents had moved away after she was born to escape the judgements and ridicule of other people. The film starts when Alex's mother invites some friends to visit, including a plastic surgeon and his son. Her mother is considering the idea of surgery for Alex, while her father seems to be happy with her as she is. The film explores ideas around gender identity, how we treat people who are different in any way, and sexual identity. It is a coming-of-age tale as Alex explores issues of gender, sexuality and identity. It deserves all the critical acclaim. This is a beautiful portrait of a life that you would never get to see in a Hollywood film.