a review of

Cards on the table - I am a trans woman with an eating disorder. So when I heard their was a movie starring a man playing a woman with an eating disorder - I felt this compulsive need to hate watch it. The movie did not offend me. There were never any jokes made at Maddie's expense. You can tell the whole movie was made with sincerity. I researched after walking out of the theater that the director made the decision to have the main character played by a woman so that the innocence of her character wouldn't read as ironic. A noble enough goal I guess. The decision to have the story be about an eating disorder was done for the inherent drama of the premise. A fair enough decision. The presence of said eating disorder was not simply set dressing. The film is centrally about said eating disorder and it goes to places I didn't expect but would have hoped it would go as someone with one. But. I also did not feel seen or represented in either respect. I did not feel at any point like the story being told was for me as a woman or for me as someone with an ED. While there were moments that I found especially funny because of my own experiences, I did not on the whole feel like the experiences being depicted came from a real place. I might not be offended by the movie - but the fact that John Early - seemingly did not - at any point - reflect on whether he should be the one to tell this story - on whether he should be the one to play the titular character - I find deeply disappointing. Neither the film - nor anything I've read about his thoughts on this movie - justifies that decision.