The 52: Anything's Possible

From June 2023 to June 2024 I'll be watching a lgbtqia+ film each week and coming back here with my thoughts, feelings and plenty of hopes we aren't met with the "kill your gays" trope. I call this The 52.

So, two things before we start: 1. This is Billy Porter’s directorial debut, and 2. Yasmin Finney  from Heartstopper was originally cast to play Kelsea and I hate that I know this.

Because she would have been perfect.

Image credit: Wikipedia

A fun, bright, pop-y film. I thought a few times that this would be such a beautiful movie to watch with a trans teen, representation and storytelling that didn't even exist a decade alone and now... the fact Anything's Possible is here just makes me so, so joyful.

The story follows Kelsea, a youtuber who talks about the experience of being trans online and has a strange relationship with her online self. Perhaps I’m just a little too aware of how social media works, but it’s like when someone talks about your special interest in a book and you squint a little, knowing that whoever wrote it didn’t have a clue of what they were talking about. There’s a moment where Kelsea goes “viral” and the entire school knows about her account, her mother knows about her account (cue screaming match), but the viewcount just doesn’t match up.

Having notoriety, fairly enough, isn’t something Kelsea wants- she talks openly about the fact her online presence needs to stay separate from her real life… yet again this didn't really add up as she uses her real name online, talks about her friends and her SCHOOL, and as far as I can see she doesn’t do anything to make it difficult for people to find her. And Kelsea does have a fair amount of notoriety at her school, so people would look her up... but apparently no one ever did?

Unfortunately there are a few stand-out times when the acting fell really flat, notably in heated scenes between Kelsea and her mother; Eva Reign wasn’t able to carry the power of these scenes and they ended up feeling like pointless, bizarre screaming matches instead of heartfelt moments where we could understand the weight of what was happening.

I’d heard a few times that this was a love story where the main character being trans wasn’t an issue, which was… not what this was, at least not really. A love story, yes, and Khalid (who, I confirm here and now, Kelsea NEVER LEARNS TO CORRECTLY PRONUNCE HIS NAME) doesn’t have to ~learn to love her for who she is~ because he loves her for who she is from the get go, but her trans identity is a main focus of the story. We see transphobia in the form of the bathroom “debate”, intentional misgendering, the angry rise of a TERF’s passionate little head, people using their hatred to try and ruin someone’s life and reputation… And it’s hard. I wanted a pop-y little romance, and Anything’s Possible wasn’t BAD, but it seems like if you have a trans character you can’t have a romance or even a story where transphobia isn't bought up and the trans community deserves better than that. Films should be an escape and, even if the world is dark and scary and full of hatred, there should be space in some films where that doesn’t exist.

Khalid and Kelsea had a very cute romance, but a part of me kept getting irritated by Kelsea’s refusal to talk about her identity, despite the fact Khalid was interested not from a fetish point of view but because it was a part of who she was and he cared about her. Even in retrospect I found it a difficult point to navigate my feelings around, but then I realised: she shouldn’t have to talk about her identity just because it’s not cisgender, even if her boyfriend wants to learn. No one is owed your story. Kelsea is a teenager and she wants to be a teenager, wants to be known not as Kelsea who is a trans girl, but Kelsea who is a girl. 

And yeah, the car scene made me cry. Go watch it.

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