A Kid like Jake

2018 • 89 minutes

About this movie

Brooklyn parents Alex (Claire Danes) and Greg (Jim Parsons) are lucky to have a kid like Jake. Their four-year-old is bright, precocious, creative—and just happens to prefer Disney princesses to toy cars and skirts to jeans. Jake's 'gender expansive' behavior—as local preschool director Judy (Octavia Spencer) dubs it—is no big deal to Alex and Greg. Or so it seems, until the process of navigating New York City's hyper-competitive private school system opens up a parental quagmire: could Jake's gender nonconformity be just the thing that gives their child an edge in the admissions game? How young is too young to put a label on a child's identity? Is this just a phase, or is Jake truly transgender? Split in their opinions on how to handle the situation, Alex and Greg find themselves navigating an emotional and ethical minefield with one patch of common ground between them: their fierce desire to do what's right for Jake. Transparent director Silas Howard helms this timely, honest, emotionally rich look at 21st-century parenting.

Ratings and reviews

This movie should be called "About Alex & Greg", because it's all about the parents despite being named after their child. I enjoyed this movie to a degree. However, throughout the film, I kept waiting for the kid to open up to someone about his feelings, to see Greg or Alex -- or, honestly, any one of the other adults in Jake's life; they all seem extremely supportive -- communicating with Jake about this. All of those conversations are off screen. The closest we get to these conversations are occasional glimpses of Jake in a skirt, or Jake hiding under a table, or the top four inches of a picture Jake painted. A Kid Like Jake left a bitter taste in my mouth. It's just two parents struggling to understand and accept their child. Yes, I get it: for many parents, it's hard to accept having a child who's different. I'd rather watch a film about the child learning to accept themselves.

it's nice to see the parents struggling with wanting their kid to be whoever they want to be. society gives us all these gender norms and labels and these parents just reject that completely, even if the world doesn't necessarily agree. plus I just straight up love jim parsons :P

its thought proviking while being real ... these are descushions had by perents everday all around the world. no one wants there child to be singled out as diffrent in this context it has a life long impact since schooling is directly connected to $ making so