To Die Like a Man mixes genders and genres
Rick Groen
From Friday's Globe and Mail
Published Friday, Jun. 24, 2011 12:00AM EDT
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/movies/to-die-like-a-man-mixes-genders-and-genres/article2073176/Consider the opening frame: close-up of a young soldier in fatigues painting his face with camouflage. Now factor in the title, To Die Like a Man, and this would seem to be a war film. Well, it isn't, at least not the conventional kind.
Minutes later, with typical brazenness, Portuguese director Joao Pedro Rodrigues switches genres and mixes genders. That callow soldier gives way to an aging drag queen with her own war paint, in her own battle dress, and having lived life in a perpetual no man's land, suffering from her own battle fatigue. This is Tonia's story, the tale of a transsexual who's fought too hard on the front lines and is facing the ultimate betrayal.
