XXY Critic Reviews

As finely crafted as a great work of literature.Read the full review

The shots are beautifully composed, the editing paces the process of self-discovery, the dialogue is spare and heartfelt, the performances are deeply human -- especially by Efron.Read the full review

If XXY is imagistically too programmatic (a scene of carrots being sliced is typical of its Freudian heavy-handedness) and devoid of humor, it never seems pruriently exploitative. It sustains an unsettling mood of ambiguity that lingers long after the final credits.Read the full review

Picture has more in common with standard child-parent conflict dramas than it would probably care to admit, but its sensitive treatment of an equally sensitive theme elevates it into something memorable.Read the full review

XXY is, in the best possible sense of the word, an awkward film.Read the full review

The story of a young hermaphrodite who's not sure if she's emotionally a boy or a girl manages to be both raw-edged and moving.Read the full review

The grown-ups in Lucia Puenzo's XXY are a glum lot.Read the full review

It's set at a beach house, but we see only gray skies, and though Efron has a wary and cutting intelligence (it matches that of the fine actor Ricardo Darin, who plays her father), the effect is tepid and damp.Read the full review