{"id":32309,"date":"2019-11-22T20:40:39","date_gmt":"2019-11-23T01:40:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/?p=32309"},"modified":"2019-11-30T04:02:27","modified_gmt":"2019-11-30T09:02:27","slug":"the-garden-left-behind-2019","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/2019\/11\/22\/the-garden-left-behind-2019\/","title":{"rendered":"The Garden Left Behind (2019)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Director Flavio Alves\u2019 art house drama is one of the most important indie films released in 2019. It\u2019s a movie about the LGBTQ community and how much battles are left within the community. Especially in a world where it\u2019s become even more dangerous than ever for the transgender community to simply function. Although imperfect, \u201cThe Garden Left Behind\u201d is an award winning drama that is about as relevant and engaging a statement about the trans community as Sean Baker\u2019s 2015 film \u201cTangerine.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Set in modern New York, we follow undocumented Mexican immigrant and transgender Tina, a young cab driver who lives alone with her abuela. As she struggles whether she wants to complete her transition, she\u2019s encouraged by her abuela to move back to Mexico with her. But as Tina finds a cause to fight for after the murder of a transgender woman in the neighborhood, she comes to terms with her final decision. All the while a young bodega worker is struggling to find a place among his homophobic clique of friends.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Garden Left Behind\u201d is an instantly engaging and engrossing drama. It\u2019s a stark statement about a world where the LGBTQ community has made strides, but still faces so many obstacles. The personal journey of Tina unfolds among the volatile political climate where transgender women face a higher mortality rate than ever thanks to suicide and homicides. Tina isn\u2019t quite sure if she wants to complete her transition, but it\u2019s never quite indicated if she\u2019s just scared of completing her transformation, or if she\u2019s merely folding under the pressure of an increasingly hostile environment. Tina can only really find peace among her grandmother who subconsciously hasn\u2019t fully accepted her change, and persists in inadvertently referring to her as Antonio.<\/p>\n

Alves thankfully doesn\u2019t offer a Hollywoodized portrait of the transgender community struggle, casting actual transgender individuals in the crucial roles. Star Carlie Guevera is especially very good as the central character Tina, a person who grasps with her own gender identity and sexuality as she views the world she belongs to, and the world of tradition that her grandmother views as some escape from the violence and harrowing danger Tina endures day in and day out. Guevera steals the movie and garners genuine chemistry with co-star Miriam Cruz, whose depiction of her loving grandmother looking for a way to give Tina new opportunities is touching and heartbreaking.<\/p>\n

If there\u2019s any consolation, it\u2019s the under developed sub-plot with Jason (Alex Kruz), <\/em>whose intentions remain ambiguous even in the very end. The writers never develop the character too much, and his whole story arc feels under developed in the end. Sadly, I have to admit the Jason sub-plot is the film\u2019s weak link. My main gripe is the climax, which felt just unnecessarily cruel to make the statement that it could have made without the turn of events that unfold. In either case, while imperfect \u201cThe Garden Left Behind\u201d is a great drama with fantastic performances and a narrative that will provoke important conversations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Director Flavio Alves\u2019 art house drama is one of the most important indie films released in 2019. It\u2019s a movie about the LGBTQ community and how much battles are left within the community. Especially in a world where it\u2019s become even more dangerous than ever for the transgender community to simply function. Although imperfect, \u201cThe […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[111,240,302,501,2123],"class_list":["post-32309","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-movie-reviews","tag-arthouse","tag-crime","tag-drama","tag-indie-film","tag-lgbtq"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32309","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32309"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32309\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32354,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32309\/revisions\/32354"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32309"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32309"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32309"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}