Transformer

I had recently been in a FB argument with people judging Charlize Theron and her raising her son. They assumed she allowed her son got his way because he was dressed as a girl and she allowed it. I defended that her son was doing no harm to anyone, as a boy or girl and not every parent is going to treat their child the same. So I applaud Janae and her tenacity. It definitely cannot be easy and it was interesting to watch.

It should have last 40 min. There's no much of an arc. The speeches are not moving and there's no story telling without them, in the sense that there is no visual story. The treatment is quite superficial. Unbelievably there are no truths to be told, there are no revelations, what you get you can take in the first 5 minutes. It could have been an amazing documentary but it got past the headline of the story

OMG another boring identity documentary that seems to fill a need that doesn't exist. Like all the endless number of others, this movie is very poorly made with a shoestring budget that will drive you nuts.

It's filled with.....well.....tons of filler because there isn't enough meat in the story to fill 90 minutes. This is basically a 30 second spot on the local news built out into a feature film that will put you to sleep quicker than watching paint dry.

There are tons of great documentaries, and this isn't one of them, by any standard. So we are left to wonder why the rave reviews from so many people? And why are those great reviews always so prevalent among certain types of movies, no matter how bad they are?

Should be mandatory viewing for all human beings - an expert lesson in compassion, embracing who you are, and seeing the human spirit lies beneath whatever exterior we happen to wear at a particular time.

The love he / she has for their kids is absolutely lovely. It just radiates.

Folks go on and on about how 'fearless' a given film is in its unflinching approach to some subject or another. Sure, there are a lot of brave films making the rounds, but to me Transformer sets a new standard. This film is far from a superficial topic treatment of gender identity crisis and transformation. It is in fact a deeply personal story of the struggle to reconcile one's own identity amid manifold, countervailing forces.

How does a person who has lived their life building and supporting a false identity to protect their psyche from the hatred they feel toward their own body set about building a life around who they've always yearned to be? The answer, it seems, is that nobody knows. Transformer manages to simultaneously challenge what it takes to be a man, what it means to be a woman, and what is required to be truly human.

Astonishingly honest, deeply emotional, peppered with intimate takes and salted with a sawtooth wave of tiny triumphs and existential setbacks, Transformer is a documentary masterpiece for the modern age. Janae Marie Kroc is ultimately more heroine than we likely deserve, but perhaps precisely the one we need.