XY Chelsea

Name: XY Chelsea
Genre: Documentary
Released: May 10, 2019
Duration: 92 min
Rating: 60
Cast: Bradley Manning, Chase Strangio, Christina DiPasquale, Janus Kopfstein, Kelly Wright

2019

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Mixed or average reviews based on 9 Critic Reviews

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Movie Details & Credits

Showtime Networks | Release Date: May 10, 2019 | Not Rated

Starring: Bradley Manning, Chase Strangio, Christina DiPasquale, Janus Kopfstein, Kelly Wright, Larissa Macfarquhar, Lisa Rein, Nancy Hollander, Susan Manning, Vincent J. Ward

Summary: A look at the life and career of Chelsea Manning, a trans woman soldier in the United States Army, who was sentenced to serve 35 years at an all-male military prison for leaking information about the country's wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Director: Tim Travers Hawkins

Genre(s): Documentary

Rating: Not Rated

Runtime: 92 min

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Critic Reviews

The Observer (UK) Simran Hans

May 29, 2019

Hawkins seems beguiled by Manning’s natural charisma, and more interested in the highs and lows of her personal reckoning. These are fascinating in their own right, yet more context might have made this feel like more of a definitive portrait. Read full review

Christopher Machell

May 28, 2019

Hawkins smartly keeps the details of Mannings’ leaks – both in their content and the manner of their distribution – to a tight segment at the film’s mid-point. The effect is to create space for the film to explore something altogether messier and contentious – Manning’s identities as a trans woman and a political activist, and the problematic, even dangerous, ways that her private self and public persona relate. Read full review

Lorry Kikta

May 29, 2019

Regardless of how someone might feel about what she’s done, XY Chelsea will definitely give you some insight into why she did it and maybe will help inform a better understanding of what’s going on behind the scenes in these long, awful wars that America keeps getting into. Read full review

Dan Callahan

May 9, 2019

This is a very difficult personal narrative to try to digest and make sense of, but at least XY Chelsea makes for a start on this, even if it cannot approach anything definitive on her singular story. Read full review

Jeannette Catsoulis

May 30, 2019

What’s left is a touching and tragic portrait of a vulnerable work in progress, one that for now might only be visible through a clouded lens. Read full review

The Guardian Steve Rose

May 22, 2019

This is very much a sympathetic fly-on-the-wall with Team Chelsea, but, considering the high drama of Manning’s life, the resultant film is muted and disjointed, and given to impressionistic images – such as landscapes out of car windows – when really the time could have been spent telling us more. Read full review

Tomris Laffly

May 9, 2019

While it’s hardly Hawkins’ error that his documentary feels unfinished — the self-defined activist’s dramatic saga is still unfolding as we speak — you can’t help but feel his unprecedented access to Manning should have emanated a portrait a lot more enlightening. Read full review

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UncleWillard

Sep 6, 2019

This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. I'm not averse to whistleblowers, but there's a way to do it and then there's a way to get put in prison. I tried to open myself up to why this person did what they did, but in the end, I can't help but feel that this is a betrayal. Say what you will about the US Government and the Military, especially about the hypocrisy of pumping young Americans up with grand tales of combat and comradery, but betraying your oath to prove a point is not the way to go about it. I think she got off light with 35 years. Treason is actually punishable by death and I don't see anything less than treason occurring in her case.

As far as her being trans? I'm dubious. I wonder how much of that is an effort to distance herself from her crimes by trying to hide behind a marginalized section of the population. I don't know that, but something stinks here and it's not that she's trans, it's her character. This is a documentary that we don't need about someone who should never be celebrated.… Expand

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