This post will contain my personal opinions on Fanfic (2023), a Polish coming-of-age film about 17-year-old Tosiek that writes fanfiction where he self inserts himself as a male character and realizes things about himself (that he's trans). Will contain spoilers. If you did not watch it, you should. It's a good film, and we don't have much trans masculine representation in media. Saying that as a trans man myself, so go watch it before reading further.

Also, this film is based on a book with the same name by Natalia Osińska that I did not read, so this review will be only about the film.

What I did like

Writers did their research

First what comes to my mind, is that I can tell that the writers did their research. Starting with the premise itself, it's common for trans masculine people to realize their gender identity through the male characters they roleplay with, using masculine names online and inserting themselves in male characters in some way in fiction or fanfiction. This is something I wish was explored more, as I don't really relate with the trans stories where characters know right away in childhood that they're trans. In this film it's not the case, as Tosiek realized he isn't cis only when he was 17, even later than me.

What also signaled me that the research was done are the little moments like Tosiek scrolling through Instagram photos full of men (which made me giggle, not gonna lie), how transphobia was shown from other characters. In this film there were moments where others implied that Tosiek is doing it all for the attention, joked about his clothing choices, viewed him as a weird girl, his father thought that the transness was caused because he didn't pay much attention to him, a whole transphobic campaign on social medias followed with misogynistic comments, a dangerous situation where he could get beaten up. This all is very much like what trans men go through.

It's a gay trans man story

Another thing that made me happy about this film is that it's not just a trans man story, it's a gay trans man story. Film introduces us Leon, a cis gay man that has become a Tosiek's classmate and eventually both have fallen in love with each other. It's full of cute moments that I like. As an example, when Tosiek falls in love with him, it affects the fanfic's story (he inserts Leon as one of the characters that is playing in the band with his self insert). When Tosiek tried out tapes, messily cut his hair, came out to his father and got dismissed by him, he ran away to Leon. And instead of getting dismissed again, they had a light-hearted conversation and Leon even cut his hair more neatly. It's not an ideal relationship either, as Leon leaves Tosiek alone as a trauma response when dealing with dangerous grown ass people that worked for Tosiek's dad. I don't know, it's just the fact that the cis gay fell in love with a trans man that didn't undergo any medical and surgical procedures that make me love their dynamic, as I can feel very insecure about myself, even though I'm already on HRT.

What I did not like

Not much of fanfics in Fanfic

I kinda wish that the fanfic aspect was explored more instead of being something that soon has become just a decoration for the film. What I mean is, the segments from fanfiction were important only to point out that the main character projects himself into male character and that the real life events influence his fanfic, but that's it. I don't know, it would be interesting to see him and his friend Roxanne discuss his fanfic more or maybe show Roxanne pointing out something like "Hey, this guy character is very much like you btw". Maybe my suggestions aren't that good, but it sucks that we didn't get to see more.

Inconsistencies

While the first half of the movie was decent for me enough, things started falling apart on the second half for me. Characters, that were transphobic to Tosiek, took his side out of nowhere. I can see development of Tosiek's father as the only consistent one, because viewers could see what he's going through and his behavior seems natural enough. With others, however, that's not the case. Even with transphobic campaign, somehow it ended literally just after one day. I understand that it's a feel-good story, but when there's little to no impact from the conflict, it all just falls flat for me. This left me slightly disappointed with the film as the second half didn't seem as realistic outcome to me.

Conclusion

This film is a 6-7/10 for me. It's not my favorite and a bit forgettable for me, but it positively affected my mood, in fact, that it motivated me to write a film review for the first time. I'm just glad that films with trans men exist.