''The Adventures of Sebastian Cole'' is a 1998 American

comedy-drama film Comedy drama, also known by the portmanteau ''dramedy'', is a genre of dramatic works that combines elements of comedy and drama. The modern, scripted-television examples tend to have more humorous bits than simple comic relief seen in a typical ...

written and directed by Tod Williams and starring

Adrian Grenier Adrian Sean Grenier (born July 10, 1976) is an American actor, producer, director and musician. He is best known for his portrayal of Vincent Chase in the television series ''Entourage'' (2004–2011). He has appeared in films such as ''Drive Me ...

as the

title character The title character in a narrative work is one who is named or referred to in the title of the work. In a performed work such as a play or film, the performer who plays the title character is said to have the title role of the piece. The title of ...

Plot

In June 1983 in Dutchess County, New York, Sebastian Cole's stepmother, who formerly went by Hank and presented as male, outs herself and announces that she is having a

sex change operation Gender-affirming surgery (GAS) is a surgical procedure, or series of procedures, that alters a transgender or transsexual person's physical appearance and sexual characteristics to resemble those associated with their identified gender, and alle ...

. Sebastian's sister, Jessica, leaves immediately for

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

, and his mother, Joan, takes him back to

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. Eight months later, Sebastian is back in the United States, knocking on his stepmother's door. Now named Henrietta, she takes Sebastian in and supports him over the next few months of high school. Sebastian's "adventures" are mostly self-destructive.

Cast

as Sebastian Cole *

Clark Gregg Robert Clark Gregg Jr. (born April 2, 1962) is an American actor, director, and screenwriter. He is best known for playing Agent Phil Coulson in the Marvel Cinematic Universe films ''Iron Man'' (2008), '' Iron Man 2'' (2010), ''Thor'' (2011), ' ...

as Hank/Henrietta Rossi *

Aleksa Palladino Aleksa Federici Palladino (born September 21, 1980) is an American actress and singer, perhaps best known for her lead roles in '' Manny & Lo'', ''The Adventures of Sebastian Cole'', ''Find Me Guilty'', Angela Darmody in the HBO crime series '' ...

as Mary * Margaret Colin as Joan Cole *

John Shea John Victor Shea III ( ; born April 14, 1949) is an American actor, film producer and stage director. His career began on Broadway theatre, Broadway where he starred in ''Yentl (play), Yentl,'' subsequently winning his first major award, the 1975 ...

as Hartley * Marni Lustig as Jessica Cole *

Joan Copeland Joan Maxine Kupchik ( Miller; June 1, 1922 – January 4, 2022), known professionally as Joan Copeland, was an American actress. She was the younger sister of playwright Arthur Miller. She began her career during the mid-1940s, appearing in thea ...

as Grandma Cole * Tom Lacy as Grandpa Cole *

Gabriel Macht Gabriel Swann Macht (born January 22, 1972) is an American actor and film producer, known for portraying Harvey Specter in the USA Network series '' Suits'' (2011–2019) and the title character in the 2008 superhero film ''The Spirit''. Earl ...

as Troy * Russel Harper as Wayne *

Rory Cochrane Rory Cochrane (born February 28, 1972) is an American actor. He is known for playing Ron Slater in '' Dazed and Confused'', Lucas in ''Empire Records'', Lee Schatz in ''Argo'', Freck in '' A Scanner Darkly'', and Tim Speedle in ''CSI: Miami''. ...

as Chinatown *

Famke Janssen Famke Beumer Janssen (; born ) is a Dutch actress. She played Xenia Onatopp in '' GoldenEye'' (1995), Jean Grey / Phoenix in the ''X-Men'' film series (2000–2014), and Lenore Mills in the ''Taken'' film trilogy (2008–2014). In 2008, she ...

as Fiona *

Nicole Ari Parker Nicole Ari Parker Kodjoe (born October 7, 1970) is an American actress and model. She made her screen debut with a leading role in the critically acclaimed independent film '' The Incredibly True Adventure of Two Girls in Love'' (1995) and went o ...

as Nurse Jenny * Marisol Padilla Sánchez as Woman in Desert * Levon Helm as Bob

Reception

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

, the film has an approval rating of 46% based on reviews from 24 critics, with an average rating of 5.8/10. Roger Ebert gave the film three out of four stars, noting that the film avoids easy cliche in favour of a more thoughtful approach to the subject matter. He gave particular praise to Clark Gregg saying that, whilst one is never in doubt about his gender because of his physical appearance, "in his heart he knows he is a woman, and he is true to that inner conviction with a courage that the film doesn't need to underline, because it permeates the performance". Stephen Holden of ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'' praised Adrian Greiner's performance feeling that it "beautifully captures his character's precarious balance of naivete and bravado, self-destructiveness and self-invention". Writing in ''

Variety Variety may refer to: Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats * Variety (radio) * Variety show, in theater and television Films * ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont * ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...

'',

Joe Leydon Joseph Patrick Michael Leydon (born August 22, 1952) is an American film critic and historian. A critic and correspondent for ''Variety'' since 1990, he is the author of ''Joe Leydon's Guide to Essential Movies You Must See'' (Michael Wiese Prod ...

believed that the scenes between Gregg and Grenier were the strongest (although he felt that Gregg's portrayal came close to caricature). He was critical of the technical aspects of the film's production, felt that other films had covered similar ground better and that the ending was poorly conceived and too abrupt. He predicted that the film would perform poorly with critics and at the box office. ''

Entertainment Weekly ''Entertainment Weekly'' (sometimes abbreviated as ''EW'') is an American digital-only entertainment magazine based in New York City, published by Dotdash Meredith, that covers film, television, music, Broadway theatre, books, and popular cu ...

s Owen Gleiberman gave the film a "B" rating, adding that he wished it had been better structured, although the current configuration was "integral" to its "charm".

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Adventures Of Sebastian Cole 1998 films 1990s coming-of-age comedy-drama films 1998 LGBT-related films American coming-of-age comedy-drama films American LGBT-related films American teen comedy-drama films 1990s English-language films Films about dysfunctional families Films directed by Tod Williams Films set in the 1980s Films set in 1983 Films set in New York (state) Films set in New York City Films shot in New York (state) American independent films Paramount Vantage films Films about trans women 1998 independent films 1990s teen comedy-drama films LGBT-related coming-of-age films 1990s American films

Plot

Cast

Reception

See also

References

External links