'What is it about my freedom that bothers you?': how trans films are evolving
The scenery and production design of Cowboys make you sit up and take notice from the off. They feel like signals that this is not just another trans tearjerker but a film with much bolder ambition and complexity.
The plot revolves around dad Troy and 11-year-old Joe, who run away from their problems together into the Montana wilderness, with but the flimsiest of plans. We are given context via flashbacks: Troy’s struggle to “be a good man” and Joe’s to “be a girl”. The interweaving works well yet results in a lack of time spent up in the mountains, getting to know present-day father and son.
Young newcomer Sasha Knight is a testament to the treasures producers can unearth if they see trans casting as an opportunity rather than a chore. His pain, fear and joy feel viscerally real throughout, not just because he is a talented actor but because he can, of course, empathise with his character. He does not have to approximate or analogise Joe’s experiences and so, as viewers, neither do we.
This emotional realness paradoxically leaves space for richer dynamics to play out in the plot. While some tired tropes and clunky dialogue (“I’m in the wrong body!”) mean Cowboys stops short of being a great trans film, it triumphs as a moving portrait of parenthood and family, two more universal experiences with the power to make and break any of us.
Rūrangi is about a trans man returning to his rural hometown after an unexplained 10-year absence and it, too, relies on flashback to bring us up to date. While the conscious LGBTQ+ casting pays off, the film as a whole suffers from a lack of plot driving everything forward. Eventually, we understand where protagonist Caz is coming from, but we never find out where he is going or what he wants. Instead, the film offers engaging, wellexecuted, albeit sometimes over-egged, scenes from a trans life. They play out in small-town New Zealand but could probably be transposed elsewhere.
There is a kind of storytelling about trans people (usually by non-trans people) that mistakes trans experience – coming out, transition, family rejection, etc – for plot. A few years ago, this was understandable, perhaps even a necessary growth stage. But portraying gender dysphoria, or even euphoria, as the story in and of itself is no longer enough. Nor does it do justice to one’s ample on-screen talent.
Rūrangi began as a miniseries that was recut into film shape. Hopefully, it can be disassembled again and develop rich present-tense storylines in future episodes.
Another Flare film that struggles with lack of story arc is the affecting Colors of Tobi. It is never fair to judge a film by what is not, however, given the rise of the far-right and anti-LGBTQ + politics in Hungary in recent years, it was a shock to slowly realise this is not the film’s backdrop.
Instead, the documentary zooms its much more intimate lens in on one working-class family with three almostadult children, one of whom is figuring out their gender identity.
The family, in particular Tobi and mum, are full of charisma and unafraid