3 Generations

3 Generations (2016) is a family drama with a comic streak you can watch online on iFILM. A teenager named Ray has decided to transition from female to male, and the three women he lives with each react in their own way. Gaby Dellal directs.

Ray (Elle Fanning) is steadier about it than the adults are. His mother Maggie (Naomi Watts) keeps slipping, unsure how to stop seeing a daughter and start seeing a son. To begin medical treatment, Ray needs a signature from a father he barely knows — and that knock at the past pulls a buried secret into the open. Grandmother Dolly (Susan Sarandon), a music manager and a lesbian, has no filter and plenty of opinions, and the cramped New York apartment gets loud.

The film leans entirely on three actresses from three generations and on a quiet, un-shouty approach to a subject usually treated with melodrama. Fanning underplays it, sharp and unsentimental. This is small-scale cinema for viewers after an intimate story about acceptance rather than a loud statement. Stream 3 Generations (2016) online on iFILM.