Jimpa

Jimpa reaches for a sweeping tapestry of queer experience - folding in queer history, the AIDS crisis, trans identity, gay parenthood, ethical non-monogamy, compersion - yet it never quite settles into the emotional depth these themes deserve. The film gestures toward difficult questions, but often backs away just when things start to get interesting.

At the Melbourne Queer Film Festival premiere, Hyde and Mason-Hyde noted the story was partly autobiographical and partly fiction, with the Dutch setting allowing greater diversity in casting. While the intention is commendable, the result feels more curated than authentic. The presence of "diverse" bodies reads as ornamental rather than organic, a pattern that echoes Hyde's earlier work Good Luck to You, Leo Grande, where a brown body ultimately served to elevate white womanhood. That dynamic would be more forgivable here if Jimpa leaned more honestly into autobiography instead of masking it behind representation-by-design.

The film's engagement with queer topics - including belonging, chosen family, and the complexities of trans and non-binary identities - is sincere, but the creators' unexamined white privilege hangs in the background. It's particularly noticeable because the film clearly wants to be expansive and inclusive, yet avoids interrogating the very power structures that shape those aspirations.

Jimpa is thoughtful and earnest, and there's value in the terrain it tries to chart. But its eagerness to educate the audience - not for the unwoke mob, but still a little on-the-nose - ends up exposing how much it avoids the tougher emotional and political edges. That reluctance keeps the film from reaching the deeper resonance it's clearly aiming for.

The film festivals are running in hot! And I watched Jimpa at the Sundance Film Festival and I watched with some family members who told me about the film and several actors whom I enjoy watching on the screen.

John Lithgow? Is one actor who blends in all his roles and this role is no different, he and Coleman share a long overdue reunion in the film.

The story is a little choppy at times like its trying to do too much and sometimes is hard to follow, and sometimes even the acting feels like they were holding back a little, one character shows up too late in the film and that was disappointing to see because Kate Box is a powerhouse and should have been used more.

I did see someone walk out of the screening at the Sundance Film Festival but when it releases to a wider audience I think a lot of people will fall in love with it.

Give it a go, you may enjoy it, or it will be a sleeper hit I am sure of it.

This movie was beautiful. It portrayed the complex relationships between family and found family, growing into yourself and exploring the complex ways we all love. This was one of the most impactful and moving movies I've seen in some time. The way she tells her own story with such vulnerability and honesty creates such an intimate story that you are drawn into the story as if you're in the family. I truly loved how they showed friction without angry conflict. This film fully encompasses the modern family and the dynamics that come with it while navigating the hurt and disappointment of the generations older than you and the fear and care for those younger than you.

Watched at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival.

I feel bad for giving a low rating because Sophie Hyde clearly is talented and her passion with this narrative is demonstrated throughout. A good heartwarming tale of family, LGBTQ indentity and bonds are something I do enjoy as they are personal towards me. I really like the performances and what Hyde is wanting to express. But unfortunately, it didn't work because of Hyde's thin approach on the narrative and the characters having no real emotional connections that would reward an investing moment. There are moments Hyde wants to explore about the themes and character and while I do appreciate her style and approach, the issue is, as I said, that nothing about the characters really were interesting.

The production is okay. The dialogue and dynamics feel clunky as some of the dialogue sequences feel a bit too unrealistic which distracts the emotional and realism that Hyde is wanting to portray. Alongside with a pacing that feels unbalanced and certain choices made from the characters are a bit strange that feels off.

I must I am quite disappointed because I want to like it. Because as someone who is from the community of LGBTQ, I understand the intentions but it just didn't work.

A well-acted story of the generations of a queer-blended family. A laudable concept, but the script is somewhat evasive about tensions between family members---tensions that are brought up and ultimately discarded. For example, the last scene of Coleman at the hospital was a perfect opportunity to explore conflicts hinted at earlier in the script (Coleman had been abandoned by a parent). But what could have been a memorable monologue of her growing awareness of her conflicted emotions, was abrupt with basically cookie-cutter dialogue. And there were other moments in the script where there needed to be more emotional thrashing around, more give and take, between the wonderful actors.....Despite my complaints, I'm glad I saw the film, as part of Atlanta's OUT ON FILM festival. The mere fact that JIMPA lucidly examines the generations of a complex family with a bittersweet legacy, makes it worth viewing and discussing. Can't think of a lot of movies that even approach the topic of an intergenerational queer-blended family and the diverse voices of LGBTQ folks and fresh perspectives of the younger generation.