Summary
Trans teen Kelsa goes on a journey of self-love and discovery, with the help of her boyfriend Khal.
This review of Anything’s Possible is spoiler-free.
Amazon Prime has released the teen drama Anything’s Possible. Starring Renee Elise Goldsberry, Abubakr Ali, and Eva Reign, it is Billy Porter’s feature-length directorial debut, with a running time of one hour thirty-eight minutes. This film is a sweet watch. The hype has been strong on social media, as it has a strong focus on pride and queer happiness.
The film was originally intended for a theatrical release, but with a lower budget attempting to compete at the box office, the filmmakers had to review this decision. This is now why it’s being streamed on Amazon. This is something I think a lot of films are going to have to do, worryingly making the online streaming services more powerful than movie theatres. But that’s another topic to cover in a different article.
The story surrounds Kelsa, a 17-year-old transgender high-school student, who’s beginning to explore her world with her new identity. Things heat up when Kelsa and Khal, a popular cisgender boy, are partnered up in art class. This slowly blossoms into a romance. Now like all classic love stories, obstacles are put in their way and not everyone in school accepts their queer relationship. But, in this modern world, anything is possible.
This film is definitely aimed at the younger generations and represents people who haven’t really had the spotlight, as leads, in previous films. Older generations could learn more about the trans community and what younger generations are progressively going through in high school, and life. What I really enjoyed was the focus on queer pride and happiness. A lot of previous LGBTQ+ films and characters have all focused on trauma, coming-out stories, rejection, and self-hate, and here we have a romantic, fun, cute comedy celebrating the individual and love.
Storyline-wise, the film is a little basic, it’s nothing we haven’t seen before, really. The acting is to a good standard, there is really good chemistry between the actors, with some strong heartfelt moments. There is a cute technique the main characters use where they walk and talk as if they are narrating a nature documentary. This makes everyone around them be the spectacle and focus, which mirrors how Kelsa is currently feeling. This makes gentle light of observations and assumptions. There is a powerful argumentative scene between Kelsa and her mum, which I think everyone can relate to.
There is a focus on gender, which is discussed in the film, with a hint as if there shouldn’t be. However, without gender, we wouldn’t have the topics for this film? Genders are important, we just need to accept people for which gender they wish to be. However, I do understand the points the film is trying to make.
Overall this film is a cute, cheeky, cheesy rom-com, showcasing a trans teen dating for the first time. Handled with care and attention, I hope the LGBTQ+ community (and others) enjoy this film as much as I did. You’ll enjoy this film if you like the series Sex Education, the films Love Simon, Call Me By Your Name, and the musical Hedwig and the Angry Itch.
You can stream Anything’s Possible exclusively on Amazon Prime Video.
