If you are looking for the perfect date night film... or great drama... This film is NOT the film for you. But if you are looking for a film which sensitively and accurately portrays what it is like for "young transitioning" transwomen this is it. Even its dated production is dead on accurate. The film was made in 1981, using Los Angeles as a location. I lived in L.A. right at that time. I am also transsexual, having transitioned socially to living as a girl as a teenager... and having has surgery in 1981. Thus, this film spoke directly to me.
The portrayal is nearly perfect. Holly is ME! I was Holly! The ONLY wrong note in the whole plot is the silly notion that such an obviously feminine and androphilic (sexually attracted to men) individual would have been drafted and sent to Viet Nam. Yes, many transwomen have served in the military. But if you look at them carefully, you will find that they are universally gynephilic (sexually attracted to women) and are not particularly feminine in behavior or appearance.
But, interestingly, we actually see this difference between Holly and such "older transitioners" in the film. There is a painful scene in which Holly attends a transsexual / transgender support group. It is obvious to me that it was REAL. Those weren't actors, they were real "extras", "late transitioning" transwomen who really are like how they were portrayed. In a following scene, we hear Holly begging her doc not to require her to go back to that support group... which also strikes me as very realistic, given that she is NOT like those others. I too was uncomfortable meeting such 'older transitioners' the first time I did in 1976.
Yet, we also see the very realistic friendships that develop between transkids like Holly, and "older transitioners" as Holly is aided by a former trucker (a stereotypically masculine job that many "older transitioners" might have held).
Finally, (spoiler), Holly's ill fated romance goes sour when her boyfriend discovers that she is transsexual. This too is dead on accurate. I felt it hit me in the gut... having been there all to often myself.
No, this film is not great cinema... but it does have its place in trans* portrayals, being the single most accurate that I've yet seen out of Hollywood.
The portrayal is nearly perfect. Holly is ME! I was Holly! The ONLY wrong note in the whole plot is the silly notion that such an obviously feminine and androphilic (sexually attracted to men) individual would have been drafted and sent to Viet Nam. Yes, many transwomen have served in the military. But if you look at them carefully, you will find that they are universally gynephilic (sexually attracted to women) and are not particularly feminine in behavior or appearance.
But, interestingly, we actually see this difference between Holly and such "older transitioners" in the film. There is a painful scene in which Holly attends a transsexual / transgender support group. It is obvious to me that it was REAL. Those weren't actors, they were real "extras", "late transitioning" transwomen who really are like how they were portrayed. In a following scene, we hear Holly begging her doc not to require her to go back to that support group... which also strikes me as very realistic, given that she is NOT like those others. I too was uncomfortable meeting such 'older transitioners' the first time I did in 1976.
Yet, we also see the very realistic friendships that develop between transkids like Holly, and "older transitioners" as Holly is aided by a former trucker (a stereotypically masculine job that many "older transitioners" might have held).
Finally, (spoiler), Holly's ill fated romance goes sour when her boyfriend discovers that she is transsexual. This too is dead on accurate. I felt it hit me in the gut... having been there all to often myself.
No, this film is not great cinema... but it does have its place in trans* portrayals, being the single most accurate that I've yet seen out of Hollywood.