OUT 11 AUGUST CINEMAS, CURZON HOME CINEMA
Italian writer/director Emanuele) semiautobiographical coming-of-age drama is set in 1970s suburban Rome, where a 12-year-old (Luana Giuliani) who was assigned female at birth has begun to identify as a boy. The adolescent is deeply protective of Spanish mother Clara (Penélope Cruz), who is trapped in an abusive marriage and prone to distressing mood swings. Though Cruz’s performance has garnered praise, this unwieldy combination of kitsch aesthetics (including disco-scored black-and-white fantasy sequences) and raw emotional pain struggles to make a sizeable impact.
