Transamerica (film)
 

Caught this on the telly yesterday. Well worth watching.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transamerica_(film)

Cham

Two Thumbs Up
 

Yes, Wasn't that a great movie?! I saw it when it first came out, before my fetish for T-Girls had fully taken hold. I felt it was a beautifully told - and acted - story of personal redemption and family bonding. The fact that the main character was a transexual seemed to me, at the time, to be incidental. I am curious to know how I would react to it now. I guess I'll just have to find out. Thank You for beginning this Thread.

yes! i need to rent this...

thanks for the great reminder cham :respect:

By the way, the film stars Desperate Housewives's Felicity Huffman.

Cham

i didn't like it too much - yes the story/acting was interesting but having a girl play a guy trying to be a girl no. I would have found it much more interesting (and a turn on) if i knew it was actually a guy going thru all these "changes".:no:

Hmm.. OK.. I do have a problem with casting non-trans people to play trans parts (Ugly Betty for example) particularly when there are plenty of trans actresses looking for work. I also think some clarification/correction needs to be done.

The story was not about titilation - it was about a trans* woman reconnecting with her son, so it being a "turn on" really has no place. It surprises me that it is shocking to many people that trans* women have lives, needs, and issues that do not involve sex.

Victor/Victoria was about a woman trying to be a man trying to be a woman. My life is not that story. There is no "try" there simply "is" - she is a trans* woman - that implies the misgendering of her past, the issues about claiming her truth and the actions taken to fix that.

Fully agree Bionca - however my point was the non-trans cast playing the trans part made it less realistic (despite portraying realistic life struggles). Sexual or not I would have better enjoyed the movie had it cast a real life "man" going thru "her" own personal issues - obviously "turn on" was a poor choice of words. Would you settle for excite, embrace, believe, a greater emotional connection - I guess I trying to define the non physical attributes of being "turned on". Clarification was obviously warranted - so i thank you.:yes::yes:

I guess the director had to find somebody who could act. Having a 'real' person play the role whould have been more like a documentary.

Cham

well put, Bionca
 

I agree with everything you stated. The fact is, there had to have been plenty of real transgendered actors who could have fulfilled this role, and that's why I never bothered to see it (maybe this is foolish of me, but I stand by it).

There are some HBO or Showtime shows featuring real transgenders, right? I am just guessing as I have not actually seen any of them (too much time spent trolling the internet I guess).

This is a ridiculous movie that is kinda saved by good acting. I guess it's cute, and I can't really complain about anything that presents a transwoman as a human being, but it's absurd right from the beginning. Her therapist actually threatens to cancel her transition if she doesn't go see her son! And she dresses like a middle-aged crossdresser, not like any TS person I've met. And her son -- who is a gay prostitute -- both can't tell that she is TS, and then when he finds out he totally rejects her. Gay guys can read trannies pretty well, and they're usually pretty accepting about that sort of thing.

Sure, most movies are awfully contrived, but this goes pretty far beyond plausibility. It's almost like they're just trying to see how many edgy things they can cram in a movie. Her therapist blackmails her, she pretends she's a missionary and doesn't tell her son that she's really his father until he tries to fuck her. They get rolled by a hitchhiker. Her prostitute son blows a truck driver for money. And of course this male prostitute has such high standards that he tells her to fuck off when she admits who she is, but they both just happen to end up in LA because she wants to get her surgery done there (not Colorado, not Thailand), and he goes there to do gay porn. But when that falls through because he can't get it up on camera he decides to come crawling back to her -- and tries to sell her his porn.

I suppose it's entertaining, but I'd have to call Priscilla a more realistic look at TS life. Seriously, there are a lot of better TS-related movies out there:

Hedwig
Princesa
Wild Side
Normal
The Badge
Beautiful Boxer

nice to read all those points.

thanks Racquel for the other film recommendations :respect::respect: