Romeos (2011) - 10/10 - 11.19.2025

This seems like a good place to start since it's the movie I've watched most recently. Romeos is a 2011 german film about a guy named Lukas being introduced to the local queer scene by his best friend, Ine. He's a stealth trans guy who is pre-op in every sense, but is on T. Being stealth and all, his identity is generally kept a secret from everyone he meets other than Ine, who knew him pre-t. He meets Fabio, local lover/playerboy, and things go on from there.

I think the movie executes its story really well, to me it seems to be more about self-discovery and acceptance within both the main characters rather than it being overtly romantic. I mean, obviously the romance is there too, but that wasn't really center stage in my opinion. Which I prefer, romance isn't always my thing and I think movies can benefit from letting it take backstage every once in a while. Anyway, the writing is really well done. While you follow Lukas throughout the entire movie, some of his interactions with other characters give short glimpses into their lives and feelings. For example, at one point Ine is all torn up about not having anyone to love. It's this build up over the course of multiple scenes, showing Lukas casually ignoring her in favor of himself. Nearing the end of the movie, she sort've blows up at him. She's upset that he's been focusing so much on himself and his identity that he's been neglecting her. And while you also see Lukas' side, since he's been very clearly struggling with housing, planning surgery, and keeping everything a secret, it's still understandable WHY Ine is upset. It doesn't feel outlandish and the buildup was obviously there.

Another thing that really stuck out to me was the final scene, but to get there let me just explain the plot beforehand. By this point, the aformentioned Fabio and Lukas are pretty close. Lots of close encounters, if you will, but nothing explicit. Eventually, Lukas is outed by his little sister (He hits her btw and I can't even hate because I would not be beyond slapping some kid like that omfg. Like it was on PURPOSE CMON.) to Fabio and they kind of fall out. They're still shown to be generally friendly, but not as close as before. Probably because Fabio made it incredibly clear that he isn't into trans folks. He does this by lovingly calling Lukas a tranny. I actually think the casual use of the word is more telling of the times rather than the characters themselves, but it's neither here nor there. Obviously Fabio was still being malicious with his words whether he was actually transphobic or not.

Anyway, he doesn't out Lukas, which may seem like the bare minimum but to me it shows that he really didn't hate the guy, just wasn't understanding, and probably felt like he was being "lied to" in a sense. As time goes on, Fabio and Lukas get closer again and end up hanging out more. I think through all of their interactions it becomes obvious that Fabio is realizing that his attraction to someone can come from more than just their body, as he seems to be pretty comfortable around Lukas. All that build up, seeing his original disdain and then slowly coming around to realize that this makes Lukas no different than before, is what all makes the final scene very important to me. There had been a scene earlier after an issue with Fabio where Lukas and this other dude whose name I forgot were gonna hook up. He tells the guy that he's trans and he just starts being super weird about it. Very fetishy, if you ask me. He tries to grope Lukas which freaks him the fuck out, understandably so, so Lukas kicks him off and leaves. Had to give that context before sharing this last scene or it wouldn't hit as hard, I think.

Lukas and Fabio are being intimate, non-explicit scene but I wouldn't blast it on the TV. Fabio seems to sort've reach towards Lukas in a way where he's obviously not trying to freak him out or be too pushy. "Hey that's the bare minimum" yea I KNOW. Which is why it's fucking devastating that this is the first time in the entire film that Lukas has been seen as a person in a sexual situation rather than just some random. Last scene is Lukas allowing Fabio to take his shirt off, which I just think was really big because it showed that he was willing to open himself up to someone. That he was accepting enough of himself to let someone else in. He wasn't forced to, he was welcomed to. It also clearly shows Fabio changing his understanding of attraction and of Lukas as a whole. It's just very important to me and I don't think I have the proper words to describe it, honestly. I just recommend watching. Movie is not rated but obviously has some more explicit scenes.

Out of the realm of the story, the movie just is a really good representation of ftm transitioning. Lukas is shown to want both top and bottom surgery, which was actually relatively controversial in the 2010s since bottom surgery hadn't been as perfected. But the movie doesn't demonize it at all, Lukas is shown to be confident in the capabilities of the doctors he's reaching out to and doesn't let anyone deter him. He's also never portrayed as a glorified straight girl, other than when Ine comments about not understanding why he'd "go through all this trouble if [he's] just going to like boys", which was immediately shut down by Lukas.

All in all, 10/10, I really like this film and hope to get it on DVD

First post

Okay. So. Most of this stuff is gonna come from my notes, which were not dated, so I might just rate one movie from my notes per day and just skip out on the original dates entirely. Plus I think that'll give me something to do while I finish up school. Watching too many movies or TV might seem lazy to some people, but for me it takes a lot of effort. So I'm translating that effort into something I really love; my website. I hope that'll make it easier for me to keep my motivation up