The movie is the story of Laure, a young French girl who moves to a new place and has to find a place within the children group of her neighborhood. Dominated by young boys, the group counts only one girl who is going to become Laure's confident without actually knowing that she is called Laure. Indeed, Laure pretends to be a boy, Mikael, as soon as she arrives in the neighborhood. The movie is thus, centered on Laure's attempts to be look, behave, talk and act like a boy within the group while she is still hiding this double identity to her parents. This unusual plot is really interesting. First, it raises deep issues that may ring a bell to some viewers. The issues of identity, peer pressure, gender and community are raised throughout the movie. Therefore, Tomboy is the proof of movie's ability to raise personal questions in the viewers mind. Secondly, the notions of active questions and suspense can be applied to this movie. While the time passes and Laure's attempts to look like a boy are compromised either by herself or by her peers. Thus, during the whole movie a single question hooks the viewers: "is her identity going to be discovered?". Altogether, through its content and its form, Tomboy is a really interesting to watch if you are willing to think a little bit!

It isn't often that I enjoy movies based around children, but it was impossible for me to hate this one. French films have always had a sense of honesty that I value and Tomboy did not disappoint in that aspect. Taking a serious topic and putting it in the perfect of a child was genius. Almost everything about this movie was completely fulfilling. The story is so captivating that I found little time to focus on technical aspects of the film. The emotion was spectacular in a simple and childish way that reminds me of being younger. This movie would have been nearly perfect if the story had been properly finished. The ending was very unsatisfactory and left so much to be wanted for such an amazing film. Unfortunately because the ending was so hollow I can't give this movie an extremely high rating, but I definitely recommend it.

I watched this movie a few months ago, and I still think about it occasionally, so it did leave a mark for sure. It does have a lot going for it - very convincing performances by the child actors, fine cinematography, and an intriguing story line. That said, I am somewhat disappointed at how the movie treats the subject matter, perpetuating the "boys will be boys" and "girls will be girls" stereotypes. I understand that plenty of truth to the stereotypes, and it doesn't do any good to that things such as homophobia, transphobia, queerphobia and sexism do not exist, but for a movie that deals with the touchy subject of gender to be worthwhile, I feel it should view these issues with at least somewhat of a critical lens, and not merely paint the picture of "this is how things are" and leave it at that. "How things are" I see in real life and live in my own childhood. So, while not a bad movie by any stretch, it did feel sort of unresolved. And sad.

Spreads warmth throughout, with little gaps were you have to refill the cup, but ultimately leaves you feeling happy inside.I love nearly everything about this film. The acting, the cinematography, the themes it gets across. All in all, a very natural, beautiful and at times, bittersweet film.The only few things I would criticise is that 1) there is a scene or two where the 6-year old girl, Jeanne, speaks with the mind of someone a lot older. Yes, the bond between her and Laure/Mickael is very tight but some of the things she said felt a bit unnatural for her age.Don't get wrong, however, these occurrences are few and far between and the relationship they had was so heart-warming. It was one of the things I enjoyed most.My second criticism is hardly even a criticism - It's too short! I was just left wanting to see more. There are more cynical people out there, I imagine, who would question this film and it's viewers after some of the things we see on-screen i.e the bath scene, and a few others because Laure/Mickael is 10. However, for this film to work, and because it is after all, an innocent film, you have to view it through completely innocent eyes. I'd feel sorry for anyone who disregards this film through being unable to do that.I would lastly question the decision in the script to make the mother pregnant but maybe that's something I just didn't quite pick up on.I gave Tomboy an 8/10 after seeing it last year but it's been bumped up to an 9 after a second viewing. It's an amazing piece of work lead by very impressive performances from Malon Lévanne (Jeanne) and Zoé Héran (Laure/Mickael)9/10