Pisaries Creator

We’ve come a long way since the 1990s regarding LGBTQ+ but we should remember there is much ebb and flow regarding any kind of progression. It speeds up and slows down. There have been good strides with equality for all, but within the last ten years, there’s been a chipping away at what should be fundamental rights for everyone. I lived in WI at the time Tammy Baldwin was elected to the House of Reps. Not too long before she was elected, Brandon Teena was murdered for identifying as transgender and viewed as a freak. This was before the Matthew Shepard murder. Both Brandon and Matthew lived in states known to be un-friendly to non-heterosexual relationships and identities.

Mutt is a fitting name for this movie because the main character of Feña appears differently to those around her. With her family and friends and only a few who really understand her by the end of the movie, I’m surprised Feña didn’t have more of a mental breakdown. She lives a fast-paced life in New York City and by this, I mean throughout the movie, one after another bad experience happens to her. I almost thought it was too much bad things happening to her in such a short span of time. It didn’t leave the viewer much room to breath, and maybe that was the intent. He doesn’t get a break either from her hectic life. Revealing herself as a man after healing from her surgery is as important to him as picking up his father from the airport.

Even though they don’t agree, he clearly cares about his father that lives in Mexico. While it’s easy to see Feña as damaged goods because of the way she was raised before her transition. Her mother became uncaring and unsupportive long before she was honest with her mother about her identity. The best scenes were his commitment to his younger sister and while his most current dysfunctional relationship is between himself and his ex-boyfriend, they reconnect in the way they knew how. It wasn’t in the best way and emotions were raw. This was an emotional scene where I was trying to figure out who was assigning the most blame and if it was warranted as both were acting like jerks.

While I wished Mutt was longer and slowed down a little bit in certain scenes, the topics of sexuality, identity, relationships, and challenges are central themes, and making this movie worth watching. I just wish it wasn’t so rushed from situation A to B to C to D. Mutt is written and directed by Vuk Lungulov-Klotz and stars Lio Mehiel as Feña, Cole Doman as John, Mimi Ryder as Zoe, Alejandro Goic as Pablo, and Lisa Knightly as Mom. It is one hour, and 27 minutes long and not given a rating from what I saw online.

I rate Mutt FOUR FINGERS at 90%.