The past year has seen LGBTQ+ stories sit firmly within the zeitgeist.
From All Of Us Strangers to Rustin, awards season was peppered with stories of queerness and identity that touched millions. But one film that, despite making history at Venice Film Festival, didn't quite reach the heights that its performances deserved is Andrea Pallaoro's Monica.
Starring Trace Lysette and Patricia Clarkson, Monica follows Lysette as the titular character and examines her return to her family home after news that her mother Eugenia, played by Clarkson, is gravely ill. As we find out early on in the film, Monica's relationship with her mother has been non-existent since she was a teenager, after she was abandoned at a bus stop by Eugenia after coming out as trans.
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Upon returning, Monica acts as a carer for her mother alongside her brother Paul, sister-in-law Laura and fellow carer Leticia. Eugenia is unaware that her new carer is in fact her estranged daughter.
Despite its dark and at first glance somewhat isolating themes, Monica is a film that puts trans women in the driving seat. It's a story that shows how much love trans people have to give, and why having that love reciprocated can be healing, but isn’t integral to our ability to live our lives as our authentic selves.
Looking back at the landscape of trans storytelling across the past decade, that range makes up only a small sliver of LGBTQ+ stories that make it to the big screen.
Across streaming we've seen shows such as Transparent, which Lysette also starred in, as well as more modern roles played by trans and non-binary folks such as Yasmine Finney in Heartstopper or Emma D'Arcy in House of the Dragon.
Studios still seem hesitant, however, to show trans stories to the world in the way that they need to be shown — with love, compassion and heart, not just trauma or violence.
Monica is a diamond, shining bright and not dulling that shine for anybody.
We see Lysette live a life that is unapologetically hers, from carelessly dancing in her childhood bedroom as the woman she always knew she would become, to being a proud and confident sex worker, pausing to take her hormones.
Lysette's performance isn't narrow and doesn’t limit her character to being seen as a stereotype. She's not a victim or a fetish, she's a human being who can stand on her own two feet whilst knowing too how important it is to reach out and seek re-connection with her family despite her painful history.
Lysette encapsulates the microaggressions that trans people face in the real world too, such as her brother saying he 'never would have recognised' her or her sister-in-law Laura uncomfortably asking her if she thinks she'll ever have kids. But it doesn’t consume her character.
Pallaoro's film allows Monica to be seen in a myriad of ways, creating a fully realised image of a woman open to reconciliation with her mother, but not reliant on it to continue her life.
As well as being beautifully shot in a narrow, almost 1:1 aspect ratio, we are intimately invited into the life of a woman who has built herself into the person she is today and her quest for connection.
Whether it be with romantic partners, such as Jimmy (a male figure never seen and only heard via arguments and late-night voice mails throughout the film), or in arguably the film's most touching moment as Monica bathes her mother, it's a search for love and connection that, deep down, she yearns for.
Outside of the film, public discussion around trans lives often seems to focus intently on what the trans community doesn't have or what they're missing out on. They focus on the pain and the trauma they experience without showing the capability for love that they hold.
Pallaoro's direction and screenplay (which was co-written alongside Orlando Tirado) refreshingly contradict those narratives and celebrate the love trans people are able to give as well as receive.
Monica is proof that it's possible to show trans-specific experiences on the big screen and invite everybody in to connect, learn and be entertained by them.
It's evidence that those wanting to make films about trans lives don't need to walk on eggshells or be afraid to showcase the intricacies and nuances of trans lives, because underneath it all our desire for connection and love is universal.
Monica is now available to rent or buy on Amazon, Microsoft Store, iTunes and other digital retailers.
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Jamie Windust is an award-winning editor, writer and author specialising in writing about LGBTQ+ storytelling, film and TV. As former Contributing Editor at Gay Times, they have interviewed talents such as Jack Lowden, Owen Jones, John Bell and Jack Rooke.
Their debut book In Their Shoes: Navigating Non-Binary Life detailed their experiences growing up as a trans person and how influential culture, fashion and TV and film were in helping them to express themselves with confidence. In Their Shoes was longlisted for the 2021 Polari First Book Prize.
Bylines include The Independent, Metro, Mashable and ELLE UK.
