Since we are dealing with fresh-faced tweens, we are spared the gender histrionics to be found in the likes of The Crying Game or Boys Don't Cry. Those are indeed bigger films. But sometimes small things can pay off quite nicely.

| Nov 5, 2013

Tomboy is a lovely reminder that the French have long been famous for a quite different sort of film-about children.

| Jun 19, 2013

Brisk, precisely observed, and bracingly non-preachy in its examination of a very tricky subject.

| Mar 7, 2012

Writer and director Celine Sciamma adorns the thorny dilemma with resonant allusions to gender roles...

| Original Score: 3/4 | Jan 27, 2012

Modestly conceived and executed.

| Jan 26, 2012

The film's greatest accomplishment is writer/director Celine Sciamma's stunning ability to draw natural, believable performances from her adolescent cast, who never hit a false note in this moving film.

| Original Score: 4.0/5.0 | Jan 26, 2012

"Tomboy" is tender and affectionate.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Jan 26, 2012

"Tomboy," a brief and sweetly refreshing French film, is the story of a lie.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Jan 5, 2012

Sciamma pictures the story in dappled sunlight and wooded fields that, though not far from dull apartment blocks, have an out-of-time seductiveness.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Dec 16, 2011

Tomboy captures a delicate moment in time before issues of sexuality so much more complicated and calculated.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Dec 9, 2011

Open-minded and open-ended, Tomboy is a portrait of pubescence on the brink of chrysalis.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Dec 8, 2011

There are nevertheless some marvelous moments.

| Original Score: B- | Dec 2, 2011

Coming-of-age tale tackles gender confusion with humor and heart.

| Dec 2, 2011

Tomboy reveals a side of pre-adolescence rarely (if ever) depicted on the big screen, yet it never feels like a curiosity piece, nor is Laure (Zo Hran), the titular character, portrayed as an outsider from a troubled home.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Dec 2, 2011

Sciamma (Water Lilies) deserves great praise for what she has accomplished with a simple film addressing a complex subject.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Dec 2, 2011

"Tomboy'' is as visually beautiful as its 10-year-old heroine is defiantly plain.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Dec 1, 2011

Quiet and naturalistic in the best way, the French film "Tomboy" rolls out a tale of malleable pre-adolescent identity with a marked absence of sensationalism.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Nov 24, 2011

Sciamma has wound back the clock to childhood to show us, with taste and sensitivity, something we have not seen.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Nov 22, 2011

Its young heroine is proud to be herself; there's just not much for her to do beyond that.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Nov 17, 2011

There's an absolute naturalism to all the performances here. That's crucial, especially from Heran, who's playing a character who does not yet know herself.

| Nov 17, 2011