XXY (2007) review

Moody teen fare about a difficult relationship between a horse-faced boy and a girl … except the "girl" is actually a hermaphrodite and a sexual encounter quickly turns into Bend Over Boyfriend (the scene is treated with delicacy, but apparently I'm not mature enough to watch it without giggling). Not much else gets covered and it ends on the same note as when it started - something hokey about being comfortable in your own skin - which is a cop-out of sorts: it never gets all the way through the 'homosexual' issue (the fear/attraction of a girl with a penis to supposedly heterosexual males) or the ethical issue regarding the parents' lack of decision-making with regard to their child's dual gender (to me, it seems negligent to just allow the girl/boy to remain both genders and subject him/her to a lifetime of cruelty and confusion). In terms of its visuals, the turquoise filter that is used throughout is hideous, but that's a freshman mistake for the Argentine filmmaker.