52 Tuesdays

Trailer.

Available Summary:

"Sixteen-year-old Billie's reluctant path to independence is accelerated when her mother reveals plans for gender transition and their time together becomes limited to Tuesday afternoons. Filmed over the course of a year, once a week, every week (only on Tuesdays) these unique filmmaking rules bring a rare authenticity to this emotionally charged story of desire, responsibility, and transformation." -YouTube.

Jack's Summary:

This indie film follows an Australian bisexual teenager as she adjusts to her parent coming out as a trans man, and also explores her own identity. It's quite a confronting film, because it very accurately captures Australian bigotry and transphobia circa 2015 (certainly in my experience). Hurtful comments are frequently employed as a way to delegitimise James's transition. He is mocked for transitioning later in life and is generally treated like shit. Take note of the misgendering in the film's synopsis itself; it's reflective of the entire film.

Billie, James's daughter, is a precocious, stubborn young woman. She's not meant to be likeable and, while I developed an amount of sympathy for her as a character, I did feel that her hostility distracted from the movie's main plot of acceptance and love. Her pettiness and aggression culminates in a scene where she punches her still-healing father in his chest, following his mastectomy.

James struggles with alcohol use disorder and depression when he has to discontinue testosterone due to medical issues. He has to attend mandatory therapy to get legal permission to transition, which is reflective of past gender transition laws in Australia. There is a happy ending, but boy, James has to go through some awful stuff beforehand. You'll need to be comfortable with trans characters being dragged through the mud to watch this flick.

Overall, the film's quality is not spectacular, but you may relate to several scenes that involve the trans main character. He is middle-aged, has an onscreen sexual relationship with a woman, travels to meet other trans men (played by actual trans men), and finally figures out his sexuality later in life.

Del Herbert-Jane, who plays Jane/James, originally joined the project as a gender diversity consultant, before being convinced to play the trans main character.

WARNING: Unsafe chest binding.

James, pre-transition, binds with bandages and duct tape. I bound similarly when early in my gender exploration journey, so I am not necessarily opposed to such experiences being depicted in films... but 52 Tuesdays makes no effort to educate viewers about how dangerous such binding methods are, which is irresponsible.