Popular reviews

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  Review by Maggie X ½ 36

  My thoughts are all fragmented. I just know that I'm seething with rage. And my stomach is turning because I can already see the utter indifference my rage will be met with. I could spend time arguing, presenting my case in the most cogent and comprehensive way imaginable, and still, my argument would pass through the insensate heads of the cis audience that received this film so ecstatically. It makes me not want to engage. In fact, I never want to engage because, of course, this stomach-turning feeling never really leaves me. I think I will be at odds with a world that by-and-large hates me until I relent and die. It's bleak but that's how I see it. But…

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  Review by Marian ★★★★½

  i think every movie should have a dance break featuring puffy tinsel jackets and surrealism

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  Review by iana ★★★★

  LFF 2017 FILM #16

  
  daniela vega could jump on my car and scream at me and i would say “thank you”

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  Review by Willow Maclay ★★ 6

  For Nashville City Scene
  www.nashvillescene.com/arts-culture/film/article/20993129/a-fantastic-woman-fails-to-reckon-with-its-transgender-lead

  "Chilean director Sebastian Lelio’s newest feature, A Fantastic Woman, has received recognition and buzz, earning nominations from the Academy Awards, Golden Globes and the LGBT critics association GALECA’s Dorian Awards. Even so, the film fails to understand or grapple with its transfeminine subject matter beyond a superficial level.

  A Fantastic Woman follows transgender woman Marina (played by Chilean trans actress Daniela Vega) as she struggles to deal with societal hatred after the death of her cisgender male partner Orlando (Francisco Reyes). A Fantastic Woman is fundamentally a movie structured to garner sympathy for a minority person who is chastised at the hands of damn near everyone she encounters. If it were an American production with…

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  Review by CinemaVoid 🏴‍☠️ ★★★½ 2

  A good movie about transphobia but not a movie about trans people.

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  Review by davidehrlich ★★★★ 1

  Sebastián Lelio’s “A Fantastic Woman” settles into a defiantly grounded drama about a trans woman fighting through her grief, but it starts with some incredible sleight of hand.

  Set at the height of a Santiago summer, the film begins with a man named Orlando (“The Club” actor Francisco Reyes) as he gets a massage at his local sauna. Fifty-seven years old and looking like a gentler Jeremy Irons, Orlando leaves the health club and steps into the tired Chilean sun, eventually making his way to a nearby nightclub. He locks eyes with the singer onstage as soon as he steps inside, and she returns his attention with interest. Her name is Marina (first-time actress Daniela Vega), she’s roughly half Orlando’s…

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  Review by Lucy ★★★★

  AFI 2017: film #4

  vibrant and touching, but also doesn’t reach it’s full potential. the highest point is definitely daniela vega who is wondrous and her presence is profound (especially in real life)

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  Review by Michael Sicinski ★★ 4

  [4]

  A Fantastic Woman, the earlier of two films released this year by the suddenly prolific Sebastiàn Lelio, is confusing on a number of fronts. First, the title: it implies unbridled praise for its protagonist Marina (Daniela Vega), a bel canto singer who makes ends meet by performing in a Santiago nightclub and waiting tables by day. Near the start of the film, Marina's longterm partner Orlando (Francisco Reyes) dies of a cardiac episode, and she is left to try and cope with the loss while doing battle with Orlando's family, most of whom have never accepted Marina, who is transgender, or Orlando's relationship with her.

  At the end of a purely perfunctory meeting with Orlando's ex-wife Sonia (Alice Küppenheim)…

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  Review by Carissa Berger ★½ 3

  I'm done. I can't recall the last time I've ever felt more uncomfortable or dehumanized watching a film. Throughout the first half I just wanted to rush out the theater. I was in absolute awe of what I was experiencing and the boundaries that Lelio was tempted to tackle just to pretend he actually cares about a trans woman's experience in the wake of tragedy. By the second half, I was just numb. Less angry, but just devoided of really anything to feel or say.

  this almost felt like a cautionary tale that felt the need to impose itself upon trans women who have yet to come out. I can't imagine this doing much good for younger and much more…

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  Review by Ruksana April Faraon 🌻 ★★ 5

  I'm sorry to be uncharitable, but I'm just so tired of this story. I'm tired of cis directors who think they're being sympathetic to trans women, but are really just fetishizing their suffering. I'm tired of narratives that are just relentless gauntlets of abuse. It makes my spirit sick.

  It was still very powerful to see Daniela Vega, a trans woman, anchoring a polished and much-discussed independent film with grace and gravity. But I felt strongly that her performance deserved a better film, one that celebrates her humanity instead of merely gawking at the things she endures.

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  Review by antonio ★★★★ 4

  "I don't understand what you are!"
  "I'm the same as you."

  The first 10 minutes of this film are some of the most affirming and loving moments I've ever seen on film. I want to live in those 10 minutes. I want to build a house and raise children in those 10 minutes.

  The same cannot be said for the ensuing 94.

  The remaining 94 are harsh, and soul destroying, and no one would ever want to build a home in them. They are real, far too achingly real. And in one instance, I think it went too far. There was a long and slow ugly zoom in a car that was clearly meant to shock and appall the cisgender…

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  Review by Eli Hauser ★★★½ 6

  some parts were like yas 5 stars and then others were like 2 stars no thanks. i liked all the walking!