A Fantastic Woman

OFF_FRAME

A timely story anchored by a strong, captivating central performance from Daniela Vega who is left battling against several cliched characters that border on caricature. The warbling-mirror scene in particular felt so hammy and unnecessary following the nuance and power of the masking tape. Great score, sublime cinematography and production design. 3.5 stars

Ethan

Daniela Vega gives a powerhouse emotional performance in this gripping drama about loss and acceptance. The cinematography and music here are incredible as well with echoes of Fassbinder and Almodovar.

Gia de Almeida

It's a good movie about the trans people struggles in a day to day basis and extraordinary ones but, unfortunately, it doesn't really bring anything new to the genre. Visually it's beautiful, it reminded me a bit of Almodovar in some scenes but, in terms of metaphors and symbolism, it's very straight forward and heavy handed, not subtle at all. Daniela Vega was great, though.

Duncan Gray

Smart money is on this to win the Oscar for Best Foreign Film, but it would be a tepid if noble choice. The wages of a message movie can be steep: Fantastic Woman empathizes with its trans heroine without letting us know her deeply, and the transphobes are thinner still. There are potent scenes that capture the queasy danger faced by the LGBT community, but on the whole its advocacy is larger than its inspiration.

msmichel

The casting of Daniela Vega truly makes this timely tale authentic, moving and intelligent while married to the excellent scripting by Lelio and Maza. The humiliations and trials that Marina is subjected to when her lover dies are unjust and anger inducing but so true in a society that still shuns at heart the transgender community with an unwillingness to provide empathy or understanding. Kudos.

josé neves

Digital. Marina / Daniela Vega carries the same facies a whole movie, carrying the film with her, not exactly a complicity between camera and actress but rather a dependency of that one in relation to this one, that already came from "Gloria", but here oversized to the ridiculous final, only possible because the film does not present any cinematographic ideas. Social area, and that's all.

ig_____or

Kudos to the director for casting the amazing Daniela Vega in the leading role instead of a cisgender actor/actress (Hollywood, I'm looking at you!), can't wait to see her during this awards season! The club scene was stellar and so was the gust of wind in the street and all the visions of deceased Orlando. Marina's silences and gestures spoke volumes, what a mesmerising character.

Jason

Well, it is possible to make and extremely sleek film that is nonetheless extremely inelegant. Lelio has made a visually impressive film; I sense the influence of Kieślowski (and not just because A FANTASTIC WOMAN is a kinda trans variation on his BLUE). The real problem (considerable) is that Lelio has an embarrassingly heavy hand when it comes to symbol and metaphor. Daniela Vega provides a stoic performance.