Laurence Anyways

It would be wrong to call this "just another TG movie." It's an intense love story, told in a throwback avant-garde style, which is pretty impressive. I enjoyed both the art that was intended to reflect the lives of two artists, as well as the story.

Xavier Dolan pretty much tries to rewrite the gender identity book with this overly long, but quite potent look at the life of "Laurence" (Melvil Poupaud). He is a pretty discontented man who announces to his long term girlfriend "Fred" (Suzanne Clément) that he is deeply unhappy in his own skin, and that he feels he would be much more fulfilled as a person if her were to be a woman. She's a bit taken aback, there are the "is it me?' conversations and then the realism sets in for her. That realism is even more difficult for his parents. His father, well he takes a slightly more…

I know people in this category pretty well, so I went into this film with some already strong feelings. I’m going to be fairly critical of this film despite being a really well shot and crafted and even a film I enjoyed enough. One criticism I have of Laurence Anyways is that, despite its reputation as a film about gender dysphoria, it spends surprisingly little time exploring dysphoria itself. Instead, its focus is on the consequences of coming out and non-conforming, the effects on relationships, family, work, and identity as seen from the outside. Laurence’s motivations remain largely…