Cathardincu Surprisingly incoherent and boring

SpunkySelfTwitter It’s an especially fun movie from a director and cast who are clearly having a good time allowing themselves to let loose.

Grimossfer Clever and entertaining enough to recommend even to members of the 1%

Rexanne It’s sentimental, ridiculously long and only occasionally funny

Paulina Palero This movie touched me in a way I wasn't expecting it to. I watched the movie a couple of years ago when it was first put on Netflix, but I recently watched it again and couldn't help but think "The title of the movie is wrong". When you look up the meaning of Tomboy you find that tomboy means a girl who enjoys rough, noisy activities traditionally associated with boys which means that a Tomboy still identifies as a girl but Laure, or I should better say Mikäel, does not identify as a girl, he is a boy. The title of the movie might mislead some viewers to believe they are watching a movie about, well, a tomboy when in reality they are watching a movie about a boy trying to find himself. He might not explicitly say "I am a boy" but his actions speak for themselves. Mikael is uncomfortable in his body, and feel like one, he stares at his flat chest for long periods of time in the mirror and we can see his desire for it to stay that way, but we know it won't, and when he is invited to go swim with his friends he decided to create his own boy swim trunks and a little bulge so he really does look as a boy. He doesn't identify with his birth given name Laure. He identifies as Mikael, a boy. If Mikael was a tomboy he would might still present himself as Laure and would still wear a girl swimsuit and a shirt while playing soccer. I don't think the director of the movie understood the character of Mikäel completely. If she did then she would have known that the title of the movie doesn't have anything to do with the main character. There are several instances in the movie where I sensed a misunderstanding of the character, specifically the ending where Mikäel says his name is Laure to his friend, the ending makes you believe that he would come to terms with being a girl but I think that if you paid close attention you know this will not happen. There could have been a better ending to the movie but it still is a pretty good movie that I believe people should watch, as it is a story that will touch your hearth.

SnoopyStyle A family moves into a new neighborhood. The parents have a 10 year old and a younger daughter. Lisa befriends the 10 year old and asks for his name. He reveals it's Mikhael. He makes new friends. He gets into a fight and his secret is discovered by his mother. He's actually a girl named Laure. The mother forces Laure to wear a dress and apologize.There's got to be a better way to reveal Laure's sex other than having her stand there naked. It's too deliberate as a visual. The story may even work better if we know she's a girl from the start. The audience can follow her journey more naturally. There is also the last act. There is good tension after Laure's exposure but it seems like the movie is holding back its final punch. That might account for the movie's short length. It's heart-breaking to see Laure struggling for her identity. I don't know if the actress could perform it but she could have put it over the top with a real intense breakdown.

BethlehemS It isn't often that I enjoy movies based around children, but it was impossible for me to hate this one. French films have always had a sense of honesty that I value and Tomboy did not disappoint in that aspect. Taking a serious topic and putting it in the perfect of a child was genius. Almost everything about this movie was completely fulfilling. The story is so captivating that I found little time to focus on technical aspects of the film. The emotion was spectacular in a simple and childish way that reminds me of being younger. This movie would have been nearly perfect if the story had been properly finished. The ending was very unsatisfactory and left so much to be wanted for such an amazing film. Unfortunately because the ending was so hollow I can't give this movie an extremely high rating, but I definitely recommend it.

zetes From the director of the very good Water Lilies, a film about teenage sexuality. This one is similar in theme, with a style seemingly derived from the Dardennes (Water Lilies was far less documentary realist). Zoe Heran stars as a pre-teen girl who wishes she were a boy. Her parents think she's just a tomboy, perhaps that it's just a phase, but when the family moves into their new home during the middle of summer break, Heran introduces herself to the local children as Mikael. There are a few weeks left before school starts. She doesn't have much of a plan other than to enjoy her time as a boy. Of course, exposure is ever lurking. Heran is excellent, as are Jeanne Disson as the girl with whom she gets somewhat romantically involved and Malonn Levana as Heran's little sister (the moment where she figures out what her sister's up to is as great a moment of acting as anything achieved by Quevenzhane). Like any Dardennes film, it's simple, sweet, and quietly devastating.