Romeos

Pleasantly surprised. Wonderful movie that may help one understand and clarify the concept of gender/sexual identity and sexual attraction/orientation; and how the one is not the same as the other.

Wonderful, sweet and enjoyable movie. Rick Okon is great!

I liked this movie, but casting Rick Okon as Lukas was a serious problem for me. I never for one second believed he was or had ever been female, so I couldn't help relating to that character as a man and only a man.

It's a sharp contrast to the casting 15 years ago of Steven Mackintosh in the mirror-image role of Kim in Different for Girls. Kim is a transgendered male-to-female, and Mackintosh is SO believable as a woman that I had to do considerable research to ascertain that the actor himself wasn't transgendered. He wasn't, and, in fact, he doesn't look the least bit feminine in real life, which makes his casting as Kim all the more remarkable.

Romeos is a pretty good movie anyway, but it doesn't depict the transgender experiences of the character as successfully as it does his experiences as a man. The movie would have been better with someone else cast as Lukas or if Lukas had just been a gay man, which is how he comes across anyway.

In order to make sense of the character Okon was portraying, I had to ignore all the transgender issues, which simply were absurd for that entirely male character, and I'm sure that's not what the director intended.

It is becoming really scarce that an indie film has this kind of execution. Good actors, good dialogue, a plot that is like nothing else you've seen. The movie focuses on the identity crisis of a trans person, but then it shows you that the identity crisis, often isn't coming from the person themselves (they're actually pretty sure of what gender they belong to) but its the world who has the real crisis, the people around you, friends, family who are supposed to support you. The way the main character keeps fighting to find his place, it was heartbreaking and just really touching. We see the transformation too, and its just brilliant. I was completely amazed.

Sabine Bernardi has nailed a fierce, tight, dramatic and moving story with this outstanding and challenging film. Can't say enough about the acting, directing and filming of this movie.

I'm always wowed when the lead character is a whole human being - i.e., not perfect, but flawed and challenged - and you are still compelled to fall in love with that character. Mix that with a topic as difficult for some people (including myself for a large part of my life) as the subject of transgender (and do it well) and it results in a first-class story.

Both leads are very good in this story, but Fabio, our lead's romantic interest, is really a backdrop and context for the voyage of self-discovery for the lead, Lukas. The mingling of the process of making the transition from female to male and the growing romance between the two leads is amazing, supple and moving.

This is one of the most unique and get-under-your-skin films I've ever seen.

...not only for delicate subject. But for delicate use of it. Because, scene by scene, it becomes a parable. Or just a poem. A young man. A relation. And a secret. Defining the others more than him. A film about a form of survive. And about the need to be yourself. And, sure, about the courage. It is not easy or fair to write about it. Because it is different and defined more by nuances. And, sure, because to see it is the basic way for discover the profound moving confession about yourself and the others and the borders betweem that. Short, a brave film. In so nuanced way.