'Girl' Talk: 2 Critics Break Down The Polarizing New Netflix Movie
This Friday, after months of delays, Netflix is releasing the Belgian film Girl, a controversial coming-of-age drama about a transgender ballerina. Critic Andrew Lapin broke down the movie with film and literature critic Veronica Esposito, author of The Doubles and The Surrender. Fair warning: We'll be discussing a disturbing ending. Some mild spoilers ahead.
Andrew Lapin: Hello, Veronica!
It's a pleasure to have you here to talk about Girl. We're only just getting to see it now, owing to backlash we can get to in a minute. First, let's focus on the film itself: where it's going, and whether it succeeds.
is loosely based on the life of professional dancer Nora Monsecour. We follow a 15-year-old trans woman named Lara (Victor Polster) as she attends a prestigious ballerina academy. Lara is also taking hormone treatments, and she's impatient to undergo sexual reassignment surgery. But the physical demands of
