BEAUTIFUL BOXER
unrated, 103 mins.

Most gay characters on television or in the movies are annoying stereotypes: style-conscious sissies or longsuffering divas, expiring nobly of AIDS. Thailand’s “Beautiful Boxer” provides a welcome antidote to these cloying characters with Nam Toom, a transsexual kickboxer who would lay the “Will and Grace” wussies low with an elbow to the throat. And the best thing about Nam Toom is that he’s real.

“Beautiful Boxer” tells the life story of Parinya Charoenphol, a muay thai champion who fought in drag for 22 wins and 18 knockouts, then took his winnings, retired, and had gender reassignment surgery. This is easy territory for camp, but first time director Ekachai Uekrongtham earnestly depicts a deeply conflicted man. “Beautiful Boxer” pulls off its fight choreography with all due style and grace, but it’s true concern is Nam Toom and the price he pays for being who he is.

The film relies on its story and acting to keep the audience engrossed, and it works. Toward the end of the film, a now post-operative Nam Toom attends a fairground fight and runs into a 10-year-old copycat decked out in makeup by an overly ambitious manager. Nam Toom wipes off the child’s makeup with a hankie and tells him to be himself. It’s a trite sentiment, but one Nam Toom has earned the right to express.

-Grady Hendrix

ARE WE THERE YET ?
PG, 91 mins.

Some people seem to enjoy watching pretty girls fall down. Brooke Shields has built her career on this phenomenon. The four screenwriters – yes, four – of “Are We There Yet?” must have had a similar fascination with abusing Ice Cube. They do their best to unhinge the unflappable former rapper by subjecting him to an ax to the crotch, making him take a flying leap from a train, and having him be puked upon. It is a testament to Ice Cube’s cool that his dignity remains relatively unscathed at the end of this surprisingly mean-spirited family film.

“Are We There Yet?” begins with bachelor Nick Persons (Ice Cube) taking an interest in single mom Suzanne Kingston (Nia Long). To get out of “the friend zone” he offers to bring her children to meet her in Vancouver for New Year’s. But the two take none too kindly to him.

The filmmakers have made Suzanne’s two children total monsters. The younger son, Kevin (Philip Daniel Bolden), gets better treatment by virtue of being younger and cuter. But Linsdey (Aleisha Allen), the older daughter, is utterly charmless. The two are so conniving that you almost want one of their schemes to get them decapitated or kidnapped, as they seem to want.

Ultimately, the children – and the writers – succeed in their mortification of a well-intentioned man. Even Ice Cube can’t avoid the cringe-inducing embarrassment of a boxing match with a deer.

-Meghan Keane

WATERMARKS
unrated, 80 mins.

‘Watermarks” documents the story of the Hakoah Vienna, a group of Austrian Jewish swimmers who dominated competitions in 1930s but were forced to flee their homeland when the Nazis rose to power. Director Yaron Zilberman tells each swimmer’s individual story (there are 8) before he succeeds in his (gimmicky) goal to reunite them back in Austria, 65 years later, for one last swim together.

Nobly motivated but commanding only if one is previously interested, Mr. Zilberman’s film can be tedious to watch. It will not attract the affection of those looking for a history lesson nor, probably, those interested in swimming. It is not that these women’s lives are uninteresting, just that they seem to be uncinematic. See this film on television, if you see it at all.

-Eddie Goldberger