In many ways, Anything’s Possible is just another teen movie. It’s filled with questionable fashion choices, boppy needle-drops and naff slang (“Sick AF”, “he’s fire”). It’s even got a scene where scandal spreads through the school corridors like digital wildfire. But while Pose star Billy Porter’s surprisingly low-key directorial debut may not reinvent the high-school romcom wheel, its bold, tender-hearted exploration of the romance that blossoms between Black trans teen Kelsa (Eva Reign) and her cisgender Muslim classmate Khal (Abubakr Ali) broadens the genre’s horizons with a refreshing lightness of touch.
As meet-cutes go, Kelsa and Khal’s comes straight from the “opposites attract” playbook. Having come out to the full support of her fiercely protective mother (an excellent Renée Elise Goldsberry) and BFFs Em (Courtnee Carter) and Chris (Kelly Lamor Wilson), Kelsa is cool and confident, vlogging about her love of animals and transition story on YouTube. Khal, on the other hand, is an artist with traditionalist parents, a toxic best pal, and a name he shortens so others get it right. He’s quiet, mild-mannered, and anonymously gives relationship advice on Reddit (the seamless integration of social media is one of many Heartstopper resemblances here). When the pair partner up in art class, however, a first meeting charged with barely contained full-beam smiles and suitably cringe between-the-lines flirting about paint shades — all played with a perfect mix of curiosity and nervousness by impressive newcomers Reign and Ali — a whirlwind romance begins.
In a cinematic landscape where LGBTQ+ narratives have been traditionally trauma-bound, an unapologetic celebration of queer joy like this lands sweetly.
Kelsa and Khal’s relationship isn’t all kisses in the grass, whisper-quiet heart-to-hearts and hand-holding at the zoo — although there’s quite a bit of that, and such intimate scenes are where Porter’s directorial eye for physical proxemics and the soulful nuances of Ximena García Lecuona’s script are to be found. Issues faced by the trans community surface over the film’s course, creating conflict: Khal’s best mate is homophobic; a jealous Em courts bathroom-ban controversy; Chris’ cafeteria activism raises questions of performative allyship.
More often than not, dramas here resolve as readily as they surface, a recurring feature of a picture painted in broad strokes (everything that isn’t Kelsa and Khal) and fine details (everything that is). However, in a cinematic landscape where LGBTQ+ narratives have been traditionally trauma-bound, an unapologetic celebration of queer joy like this, starring a Black trans actress, written by a non-binary screenwriter, and directed by a queer icon, which ultimately reminds us that all any of us wants is to be accepted for who we are, lands sweetly.