Review of Tomboy (2011) by Oak N — 27 Jul 2011

Sciamma spots the restlessness in her heroine, the traces of incipient self-loathing, the puzzlement of someone not as yet old enough to figure themselves out. Yet she's also young enough to remember the undoubted pleasures of being young: the tearing through the woods on afternoons that stretch out like the centuries, the scent and texture of Play-Doh.

.. Sciamma is turning out to be as much a screen sensualist as Claire Denis, equally in thrall as she is to the possibilities of the (here inchoate) human form. My only slight reservation with "Tomboy" is the rather safe and bland environment the filmmaker conducts her studies within: able to confide in a loving father and nurturing mother, Laure has at least one advantage over the crossdressing pre-teen of 1997's "Ma Vie en Rose", which offered a somewhat more credibly shaded and harassed backdrop for the protagonist to have to define themselves against.

All in all, though, "Tomboy" is another small step forward for one of France's brightest emergent talents: a film that engages with all manner of complex gender issues even as it renders sweet and enjoyable homage to the joys and confusions of youth.