Popular reviews

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  Review by esther ★ 11

  talked about this a little on twitter but to reiterate: i really don't like coming out swinging against work by trans filmmakers. that being said, i'm more than a little shocked at the positive reception to this film, which to me is close to an unmitigated disaster. rather than focusing on the (admittedly clever) reframing of archival interviews between mid-century trans people and a rather aggressive doctor as a talk show, the film spends much more time with the filmmakers talking about their own process and chatting with the performers. it feels like a disservice to these unheard older trans voices, the film drowning them out amid self-congratulatory discussions of the film's production and largely irrelevant personal anecdotes. it feels…

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  Review by Willow Maclay

  I do not make it a regular habit to speak negatively about the creations of trans people, because I have seen it turn to tragedy on occasion, but I have had many, many people ask me what I thought of Framing Agnes. I will keep this as short as possible. In order to be considered a film it must have form, and this has none. Like many documentaries about transness it would be better suited as a podcast or an article. Transgender cinema, if it is to exist, must transcend this sort of thing, and become cinematic with specificity and personhood. In the arts we have previously been relegated to depictions of medical waiting rooms, and begging, pleading talking heads…

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  Review by Liz

  I never really want to say bad things about films made by trans people, but I just found this to be really frustrating — it purports to be about revealing the untold stories of ordinary trans people but, much like the original short, seems so much more concerned with the lives of the privileged celebrities who are performing as them. 

  This is a film that's built around a series of reenactments, but they only take up a small percentage of the runtime — the rest plays like a messy, unfocused mix of Disclosure b-roll and discourse about Academia and The Archive. In a way, it feels like the behind-the-scenes EPK for the in-depth video or podcast series this project should've been…

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  Review by Allison M. 🌱 ★★★★★ 1

  SUNDANCE 2022

  “Born a girl … so rude!”

  Framing Agnes is a powerful documentary about transgender men and women’s experiences to make sure that the younger trans generation knows they are not alone. Jules Gill-Peterson talks about how she got a PhD in order to have the qualifications to do the research to get what she wanted.

  The documentary also covers UCLA doctor Harold Garfinkel’s interviews with several transgender patients. Not trusting the UCLA doctors, the filmmakers dug deeper into the archives. Footage was not available, so they re-enacted actual interviews and moments with transgender voices from the past.

  The Q&A was great. Moderator Ash Hoyle noted how it crossed over between fiction and non-fiction. Actress Jen Richards expounded on…

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  Review by {Todd} ★★★½

  "She represents a generation of trans women that were told to disappear" - Chase Joynt,

  - 2022 Ranked: boxd.it/eWNQo
  - Sundance 2022: boxd.it/f5MjG

  Good conversations go a long way.

  A nuanced and thoughtful discussion of trans history, icons, and the current state of trans culture. The delivery system (a mock interview show) is cool but it seems to be the only trick for delivering the material, which made it eventually feel a bit monotonous.

  A- for content, C for delivery of content.

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  Review by B E R T ★★★

  Great subject matter, there’s plenty to learn here. It’s told in such a messy way though that ultimately it takes away from the impact of the story. Love some Jen Richards and Angelica Ross though.

  That's So Gay List

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  Review by James Dean Stockwell 2

  This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.

  I’ll lead by saying while I was dubious of the original short, I had some reasonable expectations for this because I did admire (although still had notes on) No Ordinary Man.

  This, unfortunately, ended up feeling closer to the short except longer and with maybe more “star power” that only further obscures the rather simple thing of getting information from those transcripts and doing more contextualization of who those people were. There are moments I paused and just wanted to ask: If Case A is talking about being in a group of twenty other trans women in Los Angeles, why are we just breezing past that and not investigating further? Did this woman know Virginia Prince or Louise Lawrence? As…

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  Review by lubchansky ★★★½

  me and the fellas HOWLING at the television, holding up our “visibility is a trap” foam fingers

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  Review by Alicia Haddick ★½ 1

  Sundance Film Festival 2022 #2

  Hmmm, no

  This could have been an interesting metatextual documentary exploring the erasure from history of trans people, a discussion of transmedicalization, the cis gatekeepers to a heteronormative society and media characterization and demonization of trans people in society. Instead, this is overindulgent and ironically erases the history it supposedly seeks to discuss by telling us about these erased voices and then refusing to explore this or the topic it claims to want to explore about trans people being erased. Instead, it purposes that re-enactments of the transcripts uncovered are a subversive piece of documentary filmmaking (it’s not) before acting more as a documentary on the creation of itself than its thesis.

  It’s just highly…

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  Review by Kyle Turner ★★½

  frustratingly sloppy and basically formless; i get what it's trying to do, but so little of it is engaged with a real cinematic form or language. it doesn't really both to translate very compelling ideas into an engaging visual or aesthetic grammar beyond its initial premise.

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  Review by Sam B.

  I do not have a single nice thing to say, which is unfortunate.

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  Review by Matt Neglia ★★★½

  Chase Joynt is building up quite an impressive resume for himself with No Ordinary Man and now with FRAMING AGNES. A creative framing device packs a ton of educational & thought provoking information on trans history in a tight 75 minute runtime. I wish it had gone even deeper but who am I to complain when the story telling it this clear and efficient? Really great re-enactments & interviews.

  
  Sundance #71