Psychotic Soccer Coaches

Stories of Love, War, and Addiction: Lesbian Cinema at the Fort Lauderdale Gay ...

She has a loving, stable family—a father (Mathieu Demy) who shows her how to drive a car and provides her first sip of beer (remember, they’re French), a mother (Sophie Cattani) on maternity leave getting ready to give birth to a son, and six-year-old sister Jeanne (Malonn Lévana), who has long curly hair and wears pink tutus—the feminine counterpart to Laure’s boyishness.

Reminiscent of Drew Barrymore as a child, Jeanne is six going on thirty-five, acting as Laure’s confidant and protector.

In the middle of summer, the family moves to an apartment where the neighborhood kids play in the woods nearby.  When Laure goes to meet them, she encounters Lisa (Jeanne Disson)—a tall girl with long brown hair, the girl that everyone wants to impress—including Laure who introduces herself as a boy named Mikael.

As Mikael, Laure becomes more of who she is—the confident soccer star with the neighborhood boys.  There’s one embarrassing accident during a pee break, but Mikael gets inventive at hiding gender.  Before they go swimming, a one-piece bathing suit is turned into a pair of trunks and Play-Doh is put to creative use.

Exhausted by the subterfuge, Mikael retreats into an earlier childhood at home, sucking his thumb, finding comfort with his father and sister.

He does win Lisa’s affection—the first relationship outside of his family where he finds trust and acceptance.

But as the “truth” of his assigned gender comes out, Mikael’s family and friends decide whether to stand by him.  Although Tomboy asks the same question—but with a more experimental story structure.  Richard Laxton directs this British film, set during and after World War II in 1940s London.  Based on a Sarah Waters novel, the story starts in 1947, then literally rewinds to three years in the past, then to three years before that, and fast forwards back to 1947.