My Cinema: 'XXY' review

YYZ, by Lucia Puenzo, Argentina 2007

With great sensitivity and artistic integrity, in hand with psychological violence, XXY, Lucia Puenzo's first film, addresses different issues around the tough subject of the malaise of adolescence: the discovery and definition of the body, of sexuality and personality. She mixes two types of approach into the subject, the scientific-clinical approach and the intimate-psychological one. Whereas the first is less achieved, however conservative, castrating and limited in scope, the second saves the film and gives it its real organic and metaphorical dimension, one of tolerance and promise. Avoiding the easy pitfalls of the subject and avoiding sensationalism, the film delivers also moments of great violence, more verbal and psychological than physical, such as the failed aggression of Alex by youngsters at the beach, which is almost unbearable. Yet it is the violence that nourishes the sensitive and intimate side of XXY, confronting rejection and fascination of the bizarre and 'different', evoking a certain Cronenberg. And let's not forget the omnipresence of the sea, perfect setting contributing to the metaphorical and mythological dimension. XXY seems a simple film yet it is a complex one, nearly unachieved, yet promising, as those teenager years, as sexuality itself. An interesting cinematographic object.
[4/5]

check also: http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/XXY_(film)