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Transamerica - Felicity Huffman, Kevin Zegers, Fionnula Flanagan, Duncan Tucker

Threat advisory: Elevated - Significant risk of entertaining activities

Movie propaganda

Life is more than the sum of its parts.

Bree (Felicity Huffman) is on the verge of qualifying for her sex change surgery when she learns that her only heterosexual encounter of 15 years ago yielded a son, Toby (Kevin Zegers), a 15-year-old hustler who is in prison and is in dire need of a father figure. On advice from her therapist, Bree decides to meet him. Sullen Toby believes Bree to be a Christian missionary and has no clue that she's a he, or that he's her son. On these terms they head from New York to Los Angeles by car, Bree to have her operation and Toby to pursue stardom. What transpires between them is often hilarious, totally moving and surprisingly tender.

Theatrical propaganda posters

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Target demographic movie keyword propaganda

  • Drama film transgender transsexual parent son hustler prostitute family road trip

Persons of interest

  • Felicity Huffman .... Sabrina "Bree" Osbourne/Stanley Osbourne
  • Kevin Zegers .... Toby
  • Fionnula Flanagan .... Elizabeth Osbourne
  • Graham Greene .... Calvin Many Goats
  • Burt Young .... Murray Osbourne
  • Elizabeth Peña .... Margaret
  • Barbara Barron .... Ms Swallow
  • Jon Budinoff .... Alex
  • Danny Burstein .... Dr Spikowsky
  • Venida Evans .... Arletty
  • Bianca Leigh .... Mary Ellen
  • Richard Poe .... John
  • Carrie Preston .... Sidney Osbourne
  • Duncan Tucker .... Screenwriter
  • Duncan Tucker .... Director

Cinematic intelligence sources

Intelligence analyst

Special Agent Matti

Theatrical report

If you're going to cross a continent you need several things:

  1. A dodgy car.
  2. A cowboy hat.
  3. A mismatched group of people.
  4. A non-negotiable date/time by which you must reach the other side.
  5. A hot hitch-hiker who steals all your money.
  6. A secret. A big secret. A really big secret.
  7. An argument. A big argument. A really big argument.
  8. A reconciliation (several months later).

Transamerica has all these things and more: humour, pathos, irony, sex. The humour is sometimes obvious, sometimes surprising and often bitter. The pathos makes you want to fix the world. The irony comes about because of evil oppression by the Christian majority over the open-minded minority (if you don't laugh, you cry). The sex involves Mr Kevin Zegers (whom I highlighted way back in Komodo), who does sexy very, very well. He can tease like no-one's business. You'll slide off the seat before the film is finished.

As for Felicity Huffman, well, a woman playing a man changing into a woman is a Big Ask™ but she manages well. There are times when she looks like a trashy drag queen, times when she looks like an ugly man, times when she looks like a freaky woman. If I hadn't known that Felicity is a chick name I would've been wondering which she was. Her acting is downplayed, that's good because her character is over-dramatic. How many pre-operative, male-to-female, gender-dysphoric transsexual parents with a kid in jail for under-age prostitution do you know? The adjectives are a drama all on their own.

You'll see Transamerica for the social relevance but you'll like it for the humanity. Enjoy.

Security censorship classification

MA 15+ (Strong themes, strong sexual references, drug use)

Surveillance time

104 minutes (1:44 hours)

Not for public release in Australia before date

Film: 2 March 2006
DVD retail: 20 July 2006

Cinema surveillance images

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