“Clocked” (2024) is about Adolfo, an eighteen-year-old undefeated boxer, Adolfo (Germain Arroyo), who still lives in Miami at home with his Puerto Rican Catholic family, the Riveras, which includes father, Salvador (Victor Rivera), mother, Alma (Elena Maria Garcia) and his engaged brother, Ramon (Danell Leyva). The Riveras dream of Adolfo representing the US in the 2024 Olympics. They have two family businesses: boxing and landscaping, but the latter has hit a rough spot, which puts more pressure on Adolfo to sign up for more fights and win more purses. Contributing a large share of the household’s finances does not afford Adolfo more freedom. The young boxer hides makeup and is too terrified to reveal symptoms of gender dysmorphia. With the cover of having a girlfriend and everyone in the family preoccupied with wedding planning and business troubles, Adolfo can finally broaden their horizons.

The title has double meaning and is a bit of a spoiler for the movie. Clocked means being punched, but it also means identifying someone as transgender or a drag queen, not fish, i.e. being mistaken for a cis woman. Because of the trajectory of the story in which boxing dominates the first half and drag anchors the second, Adolfo is more like a Dickens protagonist who is the most understated person in the room and is acted upon instead of exercising their autonomy. Adolfo is deliberately trying to hide under the radar so their family will not notice that they prefer feminine things. As a boxer mostly wearing shorts or boxers, everyone is too busy telling him what to do to notice. Once Adolfo starts to explore their identity, Arroyo gets more to work with and begin to make an impression beyond the jittery adolescent child disassociating at the dinner table.  Arroyo excels at showing elation whenever Adolfo experiences gender euphoria and their broad smile is a welcome change to Adolfo’s earlier sullenness.

Through the editing, it is obvious that boxing is not as important to Adolfo as the rest of the Riveras. The fights are only shown in rapid flashbacks interspersed into present scenes, never shown fully. It is also possible that Salzman did not show that he did enough homework to understand the boxing world because Adolfo references making weight, but not the weight class that Adolfo is undefeated in. If you are expecting a scene in which Adolfo blends boxing with their true self, such as being the protector of his chosen family, “Clocked” is not that kind of movie. It is steeped in emotion and strives for realism instead of melodrama. No action movie here. For Adolfo, boxing appears to be a route to acquire family approval through money and performing rites of manhood.

Writer and director Noah Salzman excels at creating three-dimensional characters instead of tropes when depicting the two families: biological and chosen. The Riveras never can be mistaken for villains though they have toxic tendencies. Alma thinks that food solves any problem and appoints herself as the family enforcer of religious mores. Though quieter than his wife, Salvador, a traditionalist, supports his wife and sons but does not know how to intervene when his sons flounder. Ramon enjoys playing big brother, but unlike Adolfo, has not found his footing in the face of adversity or differentiating from his birth family.  He is unsupportive of his fiancée, Evelyn (Rinska Carrasco), during the wedding planning and does not shield her from Alma’s judgment.

Except when it comes to financial responsibilities, the Riveras treat Adolfo like a child, not an adult. Salzman presents the family dynamic as devastating but humorous.  It is a red flag that the family is controlling, not just close knit and traditional. For example, Evelyn wants to make flan for the wedding, but Alma treats Evelyn as if she is an idiot. She makes Adolfo go on a date, then gets upset when she suspects that the date has been sneaking into their house to hook up with Adolfo. At an age when Adolfo is expected to step up and pull his weight financially, the family also sends contradictory messages to Adolfo about exercising autonomy. Without them making every decision for Adolfo and determining how Adolfo spends time as if they are a child, even If Adolfo was not trans, this family would still block Adolfo’s attempts to develop an independent identity and survive. The cast is affable, so they do too good a job making the Riveras seem relatable instead of alarming. It may be a small point, but a family does not have to be phobic towards the LGBTQIA+ community to be problematic. The hate tree does not grow from the branch but starts at the root. Just because actors are affable and can infuse warmth and love when bringing a character to life, hopefully moviegoers will not ignore the warning signs, so they know what not to accept in their own lives.

Physical and psychological bruises characterize Adolfo’s relationship with the Riveras although the tone is comedic and episodic like a television series in which each character may get a standalone episode to give the star a break. In contrast, Adolfo’s chosen family seems more life giving and nurturing. Adolfo meets chosen family at a local drag show at Villain Theater and later learns how to perform in drag, which doubles as a first step to becoming a woman. Initially jumpy out of fear of being exposed, Adolfo stays long enough to meet Eddie (Brandon Hudson), who teaches Adolfo about audience etiquette and introduces the other regulars. Bibi Lake (Roland Rusinek), the venue’s MC, keeps a watchful eye on everyone. Jasmine (Daniel May) empathizes with Adolfo clashing with aspects of a Catholic upbringing and still finding pockets of belonging. May steals the spotlight in a memorable monologue. Miss Cleo Pockalipps (Armand Fields), the headliner of the venue, takes Adolfo under their wing and becomes their drag mother. It would have been nice to get a peek at their quotidian lives, but most of those characters feel fleshed out.

“Clocked” feels retro because lately transpeople in cinema have begun to depict more stories that go beyond survival or coming out and started to explore transpeople’s daily lives. There is still room for such stories, especially when the story is about people of color. It felt as if “Paris Is Burning” (1990) inspired Salzman because Adolfo decides to go to a drag show to become a woman instead of interacting with other transpeople, which gave the impression that drag queens were conflated with trans people. There is one unnamed trans person in the film. Miss Cleo Pockalipps is initially introduced as someone’s boyfriend, and he usually goes by his given name, which is the same as the actor’s, then when a transwoman of color goes missing, while it makes sense that he would look for her, it also could be confusing to the viewer that people in drag and trans people are interchangeable.

The issue of sexuality is similarly brushed over. When Adolfo spars with gym owner, Cesar (Brandon Prado), who is a cis straight man, it seems as if there could be some sort of attraction. Boxing can seem very homoerotic to an outsider but Salzman steers clear of that story line and pushes Cesar to the margins so the gym can be used for drag lessons.

Putting aside the fact that Adolfo appears to be the gym’s only patron, it feels as if drag is being used as a pat way to sidestep the more complicated corners of Adolfo’s coming of age story. When Camilla (Marisa Davila), his friend and former blind date, asks Adolfo about sexuality, Adolfo denies being gay. A story does not have to address sexuality, but an eighteen-year-old would have some sexual feelings, even if they were limited to the crush phase, and it is the elephant in the bedroom whenever Salzman cuts to the scantily clad Adolfo lying in bed.

A couple of characters feel curtailed. Cesar is a charming character, and Hudson stands out, but he does not get as much screen time as anyone would expect early in “Clocked.” Adolfo’s former prom date gets introduced but does not move the plot forward at all. It could have been a deleted scene though it may have signified how enmeshed Adolfo is and was not able to sustain outside relationships until recently. In a television series, these characters could get developed, but in a movie, they feel like loose ends or forgotten storylines that needed to get tightened up.

If lack of attention to these details will not bother you, “Clocked” is engrossing and amusing. The characters feel organic and grounded, and it is easy to imagine converting the feature to a television series with any character taking center stage in an episode here and there.  The friendship between Camila and Adolfo is adorable and comfortable. The ending also feels abrupt and like a cliff hanger instead of a denouement. Though a drama, the humor and set up have a sitcom-esque flavor, which keeps everything feeling light. Hopefully Salzman will treat the feature as a pilot and try to develop this story into a television series because the story does not feel over. The theme of how each character practices and reconciles faith with identity did not feel heavy handed and makes the material more relatable, especially for viewers looking to expand their horizons. Also in a series, Salzman could amp up the realistic aspects of their toxicity and give the characters time to redeem themselves such as a storyline involving Adolfo’s savings.

While Salzman is not a member of the groups that he depicts, “Clocked” does not seem like appropriation and is an absorbing story that will sweep you away. Though not a seamless depiction, he gets more right than wrong and clearly adores the communities that he portrays. While people of color and LGBTQIA+ need more representation in film, it would be interesting to see a project from Salzman where he mines from personal, lived experience as opposed to a welcomed outsider invited into fellowship to bear witness.