Transformer

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.