Lingua Franca (2020)

Lingua Franca is good – not great – but Isabel Sandoval is excellent and so is Eamon Farren. Where the movie falters is in its thematics. The title, for example, refers to language, but the film isn't really about the way that the characters love one another or communicate with one another. It certainly isn't about a lingua franca of some kind. I also felt like the movie directed its attention in just a few too many places. This could have been a film about both central characters or it could just have been a film about Isabel Sandoval's character. It tries to split the difference - to give us some of Farren's character's story without delving too deeply. This doesn't quite work. The one other thing I found annoying about this was the way the film continued to come back to Donald Trump in clunky ways. Of course Lingua Franca, which is the story of an undocumented woman working as a caregiver in New York, is about the hateful xenophobic policies Republicans and Donald Trump have perpetuated. It would be fairly difficult to watch a story like this and be confused about that. No need to underline the point awkwardly for us. So... the filmmaking has some problems, but I liked this movie. It's romantic and sad and occasionally very smart. It tells a story about trans women in the U.S. that is seriously underexplored, and the actress–director telling the story does so in mostly understated ways with an beautiful performance.

Lingua Franca is available to watch on Netflix now.