A Fantastic Woman (2018)

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.

A film of deceptively outspoken contemporary relevance, this is cinema at its most alert, alarming and alive.

If you're interested in the topic at hand, you should just watch it and judge yourself because the reviews have gone very biased by people that didn't even watch it and just hate (or love) the creator. I liked it, it was well written, narrated, and directed and it was about a topic that interests me.

'Never was a shade of any plant dearer and more lovely, or more sweet' - the English translation of Handel's aria form his opera 'Serse' - Ombra mai fu di vegetabile, cara ed amabile, soave più plays a significant role in this Oscar and Golden Globe winning foreign film from Chile: it is heard throughout and closes the film with the main character Marina singing it to the audience. The music is exquisite as sung by Daniela Vega, a gifted mezzo-soprano and actress, who in life is indeed a Chilean transgender female.The theme of the film - the pain and ridicule transgender people face by society - is daring and well handled. Marina (Daniela Vega) is a young waitress and aspiring singer whose lover is Orlando (Francisco Reyes), 20 years her senior, who owns a printing company. They are in love and planning for the future. After celebrating Marina's birthday one evening, Orlando falls gravely ill and as Marina prepares to take him to the hospital Orlando falls down the stairs. Marina rushes him to the emergency room, but he passes away just after arriving at the hospital. Instead of being able to mourn her lover, suddenly Marina is treated with suspicion. The doctors and Orlando's family don't trust her. A woman detective investigates Marina to see if she was involved in his death because of the bruises and bleeding resulting from the fall down the stairs. Orlando's ex-wife forbids her from attending the funeral. Orlando's son threatens to throw Marina out of the flat she shared with Orlando. Marina is a trans woman and for most of Orlando s family, her sexual identity is an aberration, a perversion. So Marina struggles for the right to be herself. She battles the very same forces that she has spent a lifetime fighting just to become the woman she is now - complex, strong, forthright and fantastic. A strong cast, fine direction (Sebastián Lelio who wrote the screenplay with Gonzalo Maza), exceptional musical scoring (Nani García and Matthew Herbert) and cinematography (Benjamín Echazarreta) allow the impact of Daniela Vega's superlative performance to glow. The film is a bit slow moving, but that allows time for the interplay of Marina's strength and the family's prejudice to gain focus. A solid film. Grady Harp, July 18

A Fantastic Woman (Spanish: Una mujer fantástica) (2017) Director: Sebastián Lelio Watched: May 2018 Rating: 7/10 {Clue: As an opera singer, Marina shows how this can be a source of healing and empowerment} Marina discovers her inner fantastic as she fights to preserve the memory of her love- against the wishes of his transphobic family members, Unfortunately hinges a little too much on transgender victimhood rather than character development, Shows the difficult truth of hate crimes without apologies or unnecessary melodrama, Impressive performance from Daniela Vega- a real-life transexual, with no lack of close-ups on her multifaceted expressions. Cinematography choices, supernatural sightings, dream sequences, and even a fantasy dance number combine for a unique magical realism tone. Acrostic is a form of poetry where the first letters in each line, paragraph, or word are also used to spell a name, phrase, or word. The word "acrostic" comes from the Greek words "akros" (outermost) and "stichos" (line of verse). Read the appropriate letters in the poem vertically to reveal the extra message, called the "acrostich"! #Acrostic #PoemReview #BestForeignFilm #LGBT

A Fantastic Woman follows the journey of a woman named Marina. Basically this is little bit of spoiler her short time lover dies and has to deal with his family and the culture where she lives in which is in Chile. One of the major issues is how the cops mistreat her because she is a transgender woman. The films score is excellent. There is one scene is the film that last around three minutes that is strictly strobe light which could cause people to have seizures. I can see why this film won the Oscar for Best Foreign film. I am going against most other film critics; I am giving this film 9 and ¾ stars out of 10.

Sooooo one dimensional story and characters. Waiting all the time for something to happen, and guess what? Nothing happens. Such a waste of time.