Opening Night: A Kid Like Jake

Description

A Kid Like Jake, directed by Transparent’s Silas Howard and adapted from Daniel Pearle’s lauded Off-Broadway play, is the most exceptional and timely of social dramas, exploring issues at the heart of multiple national debates with great intensity and sly humor. Pregnant Alex (Claire Danes) and her psychiatrist husband Greg (Jim Parsons) are anxiously navigating the minefield of New York’s exclusive private schools. Their young son Jake’s intelligence and imagination have helped him win impressive test scores, but he is also expressing a preference for what Judy (Octavia Spencer), the proprietor of his preschool, delicately describes as “gender-variant play,” ranging from imaginative cross-dressing to a slavish devotion to all things “princess.” While at first encouraged to play up their son’s possible transgender leanings so he might be considered a “diverse” candidate for a progressive school, the parents begin a round of self-questioning once Jake begins acting out when confronted with bullies and teachers looking for more normative behavior.

“Director Silas Howard, trans himself, elicits superb performances not just from the leads but from the crack cast of supports, which includes Octavia Spencer, Priyanka Chopra, Ann Dowd and, in an especially vivid turn as a neurotic patient, Amy Landecker from Transparent, a show for which Howard has directed several episodes.” – Leslie Felperin, The Hollywood Reporter

Film Details