A good thing that this debut from 26-year-old Newfoundland native Stephen Dunn is so confidently made, not to mention truly, distinctively odd: a story of burgeoning sexual identity and growing up that also manages to pack in bouts of grisly body horror as well as scenes in which our protagonist converses with a pet hamster voiced by Isabella Rossellini.
Among a sea of transgender-theme features at this year’s TIFF and beyond, a film dealing with nothing more racy than plain old coming-out risks looking positively straitlaced.
