Why would a man in his 60’s decide to change into a woman? That’s the question the documentary Uncle Gloria: One Helliuva Ride tries to answer. Set in Florida the movie follows Butch from a tough guy who runs an auto salvage business to a darling who just wants to be free from all that male stuff.
Butch has been married three times and with his first wife he had two children. With his second wife Shirley he stayed married for 21 years. One day Butch said he snapped and decided to divorce Shirley and she took him for all his money and even the pre-paid cemetery plots. Disgusted with it all Butch decides to become Gloria Stein, choosing the name from a combo of Gloria Estefan and Gloria Steinem.
So begins the true story of Uncle Gloria filled with some good laughter, interesting reasoning and a life heartfelt with his marriage to Daniel J. Friedman. While Gloria took on the complete female operation of a change, Daniel went from female to the male route without a sex change.
Director Robyn Simon (Behind the Blue Veil, Transformations) does a good job of following the energetic and winsome Gloria around during the making of the film. She even catches some heartfelt moments and also some embarrassing ones that give it more of an unrehearsed feel that is so important for a good documentary.
Uncle Gloria: One Helliuva Ride has not been rated by the MPAA, but contains language and sexual innuendos. There is a lot more to her story than what has been described above and Director Simon holds nothing back.
FINAL ANALYSIS: A fairly good film with some heartfelt moments. (2.5 out of 5)
Additional Film Information
Cast: Gloria Stein/Butch, Daniel J. Friedman, Susan Schaffel, Steven Shulman, Raymond Bruce Pearlman, Larry Sands, Natalie Chasen, Arlene Shaffer, Ellen Gray, Dawn Hebert
Directed by: Robyn Simon
Genre: Documentary
MPAA Rating: Not Rated, contains language
Running Time: 1 hr. 16 min.
Release Date: November 3, 2017
Distributed by: XLrator Media
The comments within this review are the critic’s expressed opinions.
