Having a transgender teenager as a conflict trigger-happy subject in the middle of it, XXY fails by over-selling. Portrayed a realistic drama, the film is asphyxiated with gloom. The parents are constantly fretting, the teenager’s secret is on a crash-course to being discovered by mean boys and a family of secondary characters is pushing for the operation. There’s hardly any exploration of the teenager’s LIFE but a constant display of her misery. I might be unfair, it’s obvious that hating the body you live in is no happy life, it’s just that I can easily think of some other more interesting and rewarding angles for approaching this.