Orlando, My Political Biography
Janus Film | Release Date: November 10, 2023 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
79
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 12 Critic Reviews
Positive:
10
Mixed:
2
Negative:
0

Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
VarietyManuel BetancourtNov 20, 2023
With Orlando, My Political Biography, Preciado has crafted a towering manifesto that’s as nimble in presenting abstracted gender theorizations as it is in capturing moving emotional truths (credit here must also go to the film’s dynamic editor, Yotam Ben David). Read full review
100
The New York TimesManohla DargisNov 9, 2023
Preciado’s superpower in this warm, generous movie is that while he speaks brilliantly to the cages of identity, he sees — and shares — a way out of them. He talks and listens, he exhorts and confesses. He insists on pleasure, speaks to happiness, invites laughter and opens worlds. Here, joy reigns supreme, and it is exhilarating. Read full review
91
The PlaylistChristian GallichioNov 15, 2023
It’s a film that not only works as a self-reflective biography and community portrait but also as a testament to the living nature of literature, where a work is able to be interpreted and reinterpreted by the generations to come. Read full review
90
Los Angeles TimesRobert AbeleNov 17, 2023
Orlando, My Political Biography is cheekily unclassifiable, which, considering its source and subject, isn’t surprising. But at its core, the film is sparklingly intelligent, Godard-puckish and moving, capable of deadpan wit and the most intimate swirl of ideas and emotions. Read full review
85
The Film VerdictLucy VirgenJul 10, 2023
Preciado finds a way to deliver his message while entertaining his audience. Read full review
83
IndieWireRyan LattanzioNov 10, 2023
Preciado’s Orlando, My Political Biography is a film of many visual pleasures, and they’re ones Preciado clearly shared in while devising this generous and buoyant inquiry into institution and identity. Read full review
75
RogerEbert.comMatt Zoller SeitzNov 10, 2023
It's a work of fertile imagination that takes every step confidently, even if it isn't certain where it will lead. Read full review
75
Slant MagazinePat BrownOct 3, 2023
Orlando, My Political Biography languishes in an undefinable interstitial space, floating between fiction and essay film. Read full review
70
Little White LiesEsmé HoldenJul 3, 2024
Orlando: My Political Biography is a dive into the collective trans consciousness, a discussion between Orlandos across time and place, an attempt to discover new ways to understand and express ourselves. Read full review
70
The Hollywood ReporterLovia GyarkyeOct 16, 2023
It’s a declarative project, which oscillates between didacticism and experimentalism. What viewers take away from the doc will depend on their familiarity with Woolf novel. Preciado’s film comes most alive when it plays with its source material. Read full review
60
The Observer (UK)Wendy IdeJul 11, 2024
Weighty themes are handled with a refreshing lightness of touch. Read full review
60
The GuardianPeter BradshawJul 2, 2024
The film might occasionally feel a bit self-conscious, but in a way this is a by-product of the film’s experimental nature; trans people are engaging with this fictional literary text in which trans identity has a poetic reality, a visionary reality, precisely that reality which is here found to be empowering. Read full review
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