If one hallmark of LGBTQ+ acceptance in Hollywood is the release of mainstream queer-themed movies that are just as mediocre as any mainstream straight movie, then teen rom-com Anything's Possible is a significant step in the right direction. Alongside movies like Love, Simon and recent Hulu originals Crush and Fire Island, Anything's Possible tells a pleasant, crowd-pleasing story featuring LGBTQ+ characters, featuring a positive tone and a predictably upbeat outcome. It's bold in its inclusiveness, but less so in its storytelling.
Writer and activist Eva Reign makes her film acting debut as Kelsa, a transgender teen girl navigating high school life in the Pittsburgh suburbs. This isn't a coming-out story, even if Kelsa still struggles with acceptance from some of the people in her life. Her mother, Selene (Renée Elise Goldsberry), is her biggest champion, although her father is no longer in the picture. She has a pair of loyal best friends who always have her back — or so she initially believes — and she's planning for a future that starts with attending college in New York or LA before launching a career as a wildlife cinematographer.
Kelsa makes online videos about her trans experience, but at school she wants to be treated no differently from any other girl. She even insists on the "law of averages" with her mother, a rule stating that Selene can only respond to Kelsa in the same way the mother of an "average" girl would. Kelsa's carefully constructed life is thrown off-balance when she meets classmate Khal (Abubakr Ali) and they develop a mutual attraction. Their interest in each other is simple and sweet, but the people around them don't necessarily see it that way.
Much of the romance between Kelsa and Khal consists of familiar teen movie elements: from the awkward early flirtation to the giddy first date to the intrusive questions from parents. Khal's best friend expresses some ingrained transphobia, but Kelsa's main conflict comes from one of her friends being interested in the same guy. Screenwriter Ximena García Lecuona treats Khal's Muslim family with the same straightforward understanding as Kelsa's gender identity, and the movie's diversity comes off as an honest reflection of lived experiences.
Reign and Ali are never more than just cute together, and the teen romance is a little tame, although that fits with characters who are still figuring themselves out. Goldsberry, the most recognizable face in the cast, gives a vivacious performance as a mother who is supportive but also not afraid to be an authority figure. She provides both the movie's funniest and its most intense moments. That intensity comes through in a third act that gets more serious, taking on heavy topical issues in a way that sometimes feels rushed. It would be a fantasy to portray Kelsa's life without adversity, but Lecouna's script piles on so much adversity so quickly that it strains the movie.
In his first time behind the camera, breakout Pose star Billy Porter directs with confidence, giving Anything's Possible a glossy style that could be borrowed from any mid-budget teen movie. Kelsa's online videos open the movie, as she shares her love of animals and delivers some questionable metaphors, but they only sporadically return, giving way to a more conventional approach.
Porter stages an exuberant dance number over the closing credits, hinting at the grander, more daring movie he could have made with a bigger budget and more license to take risks. Anything's Possible takes risks just by existing, though, and it's hard to fault the filmmakers for putting their marginalized characters into the kind of approachable, feel-good narrative that they've previously been denied. ♦
Anything's Possible
