Movie Breakdown: Transformer (Noah)
Pre-Screening Stance:
A documentary about one of the great American power lifters of all time transitioning genders seems like a pretty fantastic window into a whole lot of worlds I know very little about.
Post-Screening Ramble:
The strength and weakness of Michael Del Monte’s Transformer lie in its subject matter – world-record holding power lifter Janae Marie “Kroc” Kroczaleski – and the overall acceptance she receives from her family and community as she takes further and further steps to transition fully into a woman. Kroczaleski’s story is about two worlds seemingly on opposite sides of the universe – power-lifting and the trans community – and coming into a film that explores two such distinct areas, one would assume that this will be a film about push-back, about ignorance, about the dire, fucking awful hatred that’s bubbled to the surface in America. And yes, Del Monte finds this – Kroczaleski’s father, a hard-smoking Wisconsinite, is particularly turned off by his son’s decision – but for the most part, what surfaces is that Kroczaleski has, to some degree, found acceptance. Her kid’s adore her, the weight-lifting community respects her and even what seems like the villain of the piece – Kroczaleski’s former supplement sponsor whom dropped her when she shared her transition with the public – is never fully explored. Kroczaleski seems to have through force of personality and just the surprising goodness of human beings, found acceptance. And Del Monte’s film is beautiful in a way, because it doesn’t dig for the negative side of that coin. Instead the film is a snapshot of a human being straddling what I assumed were conflicting worlds and finding, well, love. In a world of cinema and news and everything where conflict is the nom de guerre, the absence of it in Transformer makes the story seem small, seem lacking. And as much as part of this is Del Monte not digging deep enough into some of the meatier issues – the exploration of any negative reaction to name one – it’s also because this is a small story, Janae Marie Kroczaleski’s story. This is a film about the personal mental toll of being transgender outside of the glaring spotlight of politics or ignorance. Kroczaleski’s fight is an internal one, a struggle with losing the male identity she’s created to become the female she actually is. The worlds Kroczaleski exists in – family, power-lifting, being trans – well, she moves through these with honesty and understanding and a want of acceptance, and she, for the most part receives it. And though the film doesn’t always go as far as it can, it seems a conscious choice, as if pulling the focus away from Kroczaleski and the inner struggle she faces would do her a disservice. This is a small story but a surprising, important one.
One Last Thought:
Del Monte found a real winner in Kroczaleski. There’s an innate Midwestern politeness and charm coupled with this badass ex-Marine/ex-power lifter that is more than just interesting, it’s magnetic.
