The Argentinian Spanish language film XXY is about two young characters coming to interact with one another amidst the somewhat barren autumnal months of coastal South America. One is a hermaphrodite, a girl with certain male characteristics and therefore as a physical specimen confused in their overall gender. The other will serve only to become confused, specifically in regards as to where their own sexual orientation lies as the relationship and the persistent coming together the pair of them share deepens and deepens. Around them, adults in the form of parents and guardians discuss the best plan of action for the hermaphrodite, as important decisions regarding the life of a youngster are deliberated. Whilst clocking in at under an hour and a half, the film covers a lot of ground and it's to Lucía Puenzo and his co-writers' great credit that they manage to both take and explore such meaty material in the efficient manner they have done.
One of the two leads is Alvaro (Piroyansky), an adolescent boy whom arrives at the coastal locale in Uruaguay with his mother and father whom themselves have been called upon to sort out the very issue that will have an immense change on their son's life, at least. Alvaro himself is a mess of long, bushy hair, goofy looking headphones and a coat for the wintry season that looks a good size or so too big for him; a quiet boy that doesn't say much when he and his family arrive by car ferry to their destination – a character whose gaze it is established we first observe the world from out of and someone who will not forget his trip to this place in a hurry. His foil is the aforementioned cross-gender individual Alex (Efron), themselves an adolescent and offspring to that of sea-life biologist Néstor Kraken (Darín) and his wife Suli (Bertuccelli).
It is Alex's gaze with whom Alvaro will share the film with, a looking up through the floorboards upon Alvaro's arrival as he trudges overhead shot from their point of view and acting as an early and the primary instance of Alex being in a position of dominance over Alvaro, in that he does not see them hiding. With the gazes they share comes the story of friendship and fondness, something you could classify a love story, that they additionally share. Alex's problem is unbeknownst to Alvaro, Alex's duality in gender not an item to the ever tepid Alvaro thus seeing the film effectively qualify as a mediation on the power of one's demeanour and sexuality and the affect that can have on one person whom reads them plain and simple as a member of the opposite sex. Obvious parallels to 1992's The Crying Game may very well have already been made. XXY is a long way from representing an overly played Hollywoodised idea of two attractive people, of whom are clearly of definitive genders, on an limply forged path that leads inexcusably to the pair of them falling in love with each other. As their friendship begins, progresses and concludes in a sex act; the film has essentially unfolded a natural tale of one person and their sexuality driven by hormonal unrest meeting head on with a young boy whose exposure to many things in life is still in its infancy. Alex's constant pushing of the boundaries; their raising of the stakes in how far things might go between them is quite painful to watch as Alvaro is powerless to everything going on but equally fascinating.
The question as to whether Alvaro would have given Alex the time of day had he known of her condition arises, XXY ultimately more interested in the naturality of how human beings reach a decision in a given situation plus the events that arise out of that, than placing two quirky characters of different sorts on a similar plain and having them undertake arcs which inevitably lead to connection. The film balances all its 'issue' content nicely with the coming of age stuff, the thrill being in their interactions by day and by night with the terror and the danger omnipresent in where it all leads to. The norm for Alex will see them sit, barelegged, on a sparsely populated beach trying to interact with Alvaro and talking dirty to him from the get-go; with fleeting attempts to fill his head up with novel ideas of female supremacy as they lay there topless on a bed the order of the evenings. Very soon degrees of confusion, temptation and lust combine to form a dangerous cocktail.
The flirtations and interactions will lead to a sex act which comes to upset Alex; confuse Alvaro, who is close to all but technically raped, and will do most of the above as well as worry and conflict Alex's father. Reading into the framework of what leads to where as a demonisation is possible, the sequence a crescendo of whatever sexual tension there was between the two young leads. Its coming of age content is probably a little more interesting than its addressing of the issue at hand; but the extremity, certainly in regards to the sensitive nature of the situation, is given a knowing and rightful treatment. In inadvertently observing the pair of them, Néstor comes to realise his daughter is 'of an age' and that as they make their way towards this age, her own choices will have to become more and more prominent thus aptly taking on the weighty substance of a father coming to terms with what's best for their own young. It's here the film effectively veers down another route, the moral weight of deciding between what's either correct for young Alex or whether the right answer is even to let them decide. XXY doesn't lecture to an audience about what's right or wrong for those suffering the issues at hand, instead creating believable characters and unfolding the events within their lives in an engrossing manner.
One of the two leads is Alvaro (Piroyansky), an adolescent boy whom arrives at the coastal locale in Uruaguay with his mother and father whom themselves have been called upon to sort out the very issue that will have an immense change on their son's life, at least. Alvaro himself is a mess of long, bushy hair, goofy looking headphones and a coat for the wintry season that looks a good size or so too big for him; a quiet boy that doesn't say much when he and his family arrive by car ferry to their destination – a character whose gaze it is established we first observe the world from out of and someone who will not forget his trip to this place in a hurry. His foil is the aforementioned cross-gender individual Alex (Efron), themselves an adolescent and offspring to that of sea-life biologist Néstor Kraken (Darín) and his wife Suli (Bertuccelli).
It is Alex's gaze with whom Alvaro will share the film with, a looking up through the floorboards upon Alvaro's arrival as he trudges overhead shot from their point of view and acting as an early and the primary instance of Alex being in a position of dominance over Alvaro, in that he does not see them hiding. With the gazes they share comes the story of friendship and fondness, something you could classify a love story, that they additionally share. Alex's problem is unbeknownst to Alvaro, Alex's duality in gender not an item to the ever tepid Alvaro thus seeing the film effectively qualify as a mediation on the power of one's demeanour and sexuality and the affect that can have on one person whom reads them plain and simple as a member of the opposite sex. Obvious parallels to 1992's The Crying Game may very well have already been made. XXY is a long way from representing an overly played Hollywoodised idea of two attractive people, of whom are clearly of definitive genders, on an limply forged path that leads inexcusably to the pair of them falling in love with each other. As their friendship begins, progresses and concludes in a sex act; the film has essentially unfolded a natural tale of one person and their sexuality driven by hormonal unrest meeting head on with a young boy whose exposure to many things in life is still in its infancy. Alex's constant pushing of the boundaries; their raising of the stakes in how far things might go between them is quite painful to watch as Alvaro is powerless to everything going on but equally fascinating.
The question as to whether Alvaro would have given Alex the time of day had he known of her condition arises, XXY ultimately more interested in the naturality of how human beings reach a decision in a given situation plus the events that arise out of that, than placing two quirky characters of different sorts on a similar plain and having them undertake arcs which inevitably lead to connection. The film balances all its 'issue' content nicely with the coming of age stuff, the thrill being in their interactions by day and by night with the terror and the danger omnipresent in where it all leads to. The norm for Alex will see them sit, barelegged, on a sparsely populated beach trying to interact with Alvaro and talking dirty to him from the get-go; with fleeting attempts to fill his head up with novel ideas of female supremacy as they lay there topless on a bed the order of the evenings. Very soon degrees of confusion, temptation and lust combine to form a dangerous cocktail.
The flirtations and interactions will lead to a sex act which comes to upset Alex; confuse Alvaro, who is close to all but technically raped, and will do most of the above as well as worry and conflict Alex's father. Reading into the framework of what leads to where as a demonisation is possible, the sequence a crescendo of whatever sexual tension there was between the two young leads. Its coming of age content is probably a little more interesting than its addressing of the issue at hand; but the extremity, certainly in regards to the sensitive nature of the situation, is given a knowing and rightful treatment. In inadvertently observing the pair of them, Néstor comes to realise his daughter is 'of an age' and that as they make their way towards this age, her own choices will have to become more and more prominent thus aptly taking on the weighty substance of a father coming to terms with what's best for their own young. It's here the film effectively veers down another route, the moral weight of deciding between what's either correct for young Alex or whether the right answer is even to let them decide. XXY doesn't lecture to an audience about what's right or wrong for those suffering the issues at hand, instead creating believable characters and unfolding the events within their lives in an engrossing manner.