Finding Our Breakfast on Pluto

During the mid 70's a young trans-woman named Patrick "Kitten" Brady journeys from Ireland to London to find her long lost mother who was swallowed up by the  greatest city in the world. Played by Cillian Murphy, Kitten ends up working as a magician's assistant, a prostitute, a womble and a in a peepshow, the offspring of a priest, Kitten grows up in revolutionary Ireland, close to the border on Northern Ireland raised by his adoptive mother an environment from which he eventually escapes living rough for a few years.

This beautifully quirky dark comedy uses over thirty short chapters to explain the story of Kitten, a young transwoman, despite Kitten being trans, the film never judges her for her coices or for the hard decisions she has to make, and Kitten becomes a prostitute, and impersonates a BT saleswoman in order to find his mother. Cillian Murphy is astounding in the lead role, and he takes on not just the look of a woman, but also the mannerisms and posture. The character of Patrick is so much more than just a trans character, and throughout most of the film, inhabits a space somewhere between the hetero-normative binary system of male and female.

Kitten is essentially neither male nor female, although he starts the show biologically male, he spend the vast majority of the film inhabiting the space in between, Kitten's gender is a reference point for his emotions as he goes through his journey, he starts the film as Patrick, a young boy being raised near the Irish border by a woman he believes to be his mother, after he discovers his adoption, he begins to experiment with his appearance, taking on a more feminine or effeminate appearance.

Not knowing who his mother is, he spends the rest of the film in a sort of limbo, not knowing where he comes from, or who gave birth to him, and thus his external gender is also in a sense of limbo, he retains the names Kitten and Patrick, and works in a typically female industry with male clients, he also dates men and solicits work from male clients as a prostitutes. Towards the end of the film, when Patrick goes to see her mother, her appearance is drastically different, loosing the male aspects of her style and becoming a true physical woman.

Intentionally this happens before she even sees her mother, showing that the turning point of the film is not Kitten finding her mother, and discovering where she came from, but discovering who she is as a person and who she wants to be, she realizes that finding a sense of self will not come from finding her mother, but from finding herself. Cillian Murphy provides one of cinemas greatest performances in Breakfast On Pluto, a delightfully quirky dark comedy that remains one of the most sensitive and realistic portrayal of a trans character to date. Rating: A

Patrick "Kitten" Braden: Not many people can take the tale of Patrick Braden, aka St. Kitten, who strutted the catwalks, face lit by a halo of flashbulbs as "oh!" she shrieks, "I told you, from my best side darlings."

Jared Leto and the Transgender Question

Well, i don't know if any of you have been living under a rock for the past few days, i assume if you are reading this blog you do at least have a limited interest in cinema, and of course internet access so i would hope that you now know that on sunday night, Jared Leto took home a much deserved Oscar for his role in Dallas Buyers Club. I'll review the ceremony later, but now i would like to talk about the prominence (or lack thereof) of transgender actors and characters in film and television. Leto's win generated a slight backlash from members of the LGBT and trans communities who felt that the role should have gone to a transgender actor.

Leto is a cisgender actor, who, in Dallas Buyers Club, plays Rayon, a pre-op transsexual struggling to fight AID's and import drugs, whilst being shunned by her family and community. Jared Leto's performance in this film is spectacular, it feels visceral and real, and we feel Rayon's pain just as much as she does. The reason Jared Leto deserves the Oscar is that when i watched this film, i couldn't help but root for Rayon, and after a certain point i stopped seeing Jared Leto, as he fell deeper and deeper into his character, getting lost under the layers of makeup and wigs. His performance is so powerful, that it would have been inconceivable to give anyone else the golden statuette.

I do however understand the arguments given by transgender activists, simply put, there are not enough transgender actors working in hollywood today, in fact there is really only one, Laverne Cox, who plays the sassy Sophia Burset, in Netflix's Orange Is The New Black, carries the weight of representing the entire trans community, which is unacceptable. A trans actor has never been nominated for either an Oscar or and Emmy, and this needs to be changed. The real problem is that it's not Leto's fault, and he shouldn't be condemned for his performance or rebuked for taking on this role, as he pulled it of with subtlety and dignity. Other films featuring cisgender actors playing transgender characters such as Transamerica featuring Felicity Huffman or Boys Don't Cry starring Hilary Swank also attempt to deal with this complex issue, and manage to pull it off successfully.

It is not Jared Leto's fault that there aren't enough trans actors working, but it is Hollywood's fault, minorities are very poorly represented by the academy, it is not just the trans community that is underrepresented, only around ten black actors have ever won Oscars for acting, and the academy is over eighty percent caucasian. If Jared Leto is shunned for playing a transsexual character, then Tom Hanks should be criticized for his role in Philadelphia, Sean Penn should never have played Harvey Milk, and Neil Patrick Harris would be criticized for playing a straight character on How I Met Your Mother. I don't really care about an actors back history, for instance i have no issue with Kevin McHale playing a disabled character on Glee, because i support art, and i support performance, and if actors were simply content to play themselves onscreen the film industry would be far less exciting.

The Academy loves transformation, and so do i, Leto's transformation into Rayon is astounding, as was Felicity Huffman's. I agree that something needs to be done about the prevalence of transgender actors, and this vital community needs to be given more opportunities within the film industry. However the issue of the transgender community being underrepresented is for the whole of Hollywood to bear, and not exclusively the responsibility of Jared Leto.

Nothing Can Kill Ron Woodroof - Dallas Buyers Club

Dallas Buyers Club is a 2013 American biographical drama film directed by Jean Marc Vallée, about the AIDS epidemic during the eighties, and about a group of people who started up a buyers club, smuggling antiviral drugs into the united states from Mexico. The film stars Mathew McConaughey as Woodroof , a man diagnosed with AIDS who is given 30 days to live. Jared Leto stars as Rayon, a pre-op transsexual who joins up with Woodroof in the buyers club, also featured is Jennifer Garner, who plays a doctor treating AIDS patients at the Dallas Mercy Hospital.

The film uses an interesting narrative structure, the movie is divided into chapters based on the time elapsed since Woodroof's HIV diagnosis, there on the film uses titles to tell us how much time has elapsed since the diagnosis, which drives home the idea of Woodroof only having 30 days to live, and his fight for survival. The film tells an interesting side of the AIDS epidemic, and presents two facets of the community who were affected by the epidemic, yet whose stories are rarely told, straight people and transsexuals, their stories are just as important, and this is a film which gives them a voice without making it seem like they were the sole saviors of that era.

The film succedes in large part due to it's interesting narrative structure, strong direction and filming, and its diverse and talented cast. Both Leto and McConaughey give phenomenal performances, with both being frontrunners for the Oscars. McConaughey's performance is visceral and powerful, and he successfully plays a man who is conflicted and ignorant, and who is desperately struggling for survival in a world which has become unaccepting of him. I have to credit Matthew McConaughey (and my friend Orla for pointing this out) for successfully shedding his romantic comedy persona of the mid 2000's, and managing to become seen as a serious actor these past few years, descending into Rom-Com territory is usually a one way journey, yet McConaughey has successfully managed to rise from the ashes. Jared Leto also gives a simply stunning performance as Rayon, a transsexual woman who is trying to find her place in the world, as well as her place within herself, and who joins with Woodroof in an attempt to stay alive, no matter how loathsome she finds his personality, Leto manages to be perfectly convincing in his character, and it is impossible to imagine Rayon any other way, such is the power of his performance.

Dallas Buyers Club is a film about trying to survive, about fighting for life in any way possible. Dallas Buyers Club tells a story about a side of the AIDS epidemic that we haven't seen before, and succeeds due to it's strong direction and powerful performances from Jared Leto and Matthew McConaughey. Dallas Buyers Club is a powerful story about a fight for life, no matter what obstacles come in your way. Rating:A-

Ron Woodroof: Welcome to the Dallas Buyers Club!