Tomboy

Tomboy (2011) is Céline Sciamma's quiet French drama, available to watch online on iFILM. Ten-year-old Laure moves to a new neighborhood, and a local girl named Lisa takes her for a boy. Laure plays along and introduces herself as Mickaël.

What follows is one long summer of pickup football, swims in the lake, scrapes and a first hesitant kiss. Laure crops her hair short, practices spitting like the other boys, and works hard to hide the one thing that could give the whole act away. Only her little sister Jeanne is let in on the secret. But the new school term is coming, and the name on the class register won't be Mickaël.

Sciamma shoots almost without a score and never overplays her hand — the camera stays close on the kids' faces, and the reckoning arrives not through melodrama but a single awkward conversation. The film traveled the festival circuit widely and became an early calling card for the director who would later make Portrait of a Lady on Fire. Restrained, precise filmmaking for viewers who prefer subtlety to big scenes. Stream Tomboy (2011) online on iFILM.