Billy Porter’s directorial debut, Anything’s Possible, is a groundbreaking mainstream rom-com, putting a black, trans lead front and center inside a conventional, John Hughes-esque film. However, the predictability of its plot can be forgiven because there are few (or no) movies made by a major studio (in this case, MGM) that will proudly feature a trans lead in their love triangle rom-com. That’s never been done before, and the fact that MGM said yes to Ximena García Lecuona’s script is something to celebrate.
The film follows the story of Kelsa (Eva Reign), a trans high school teenager who has a crush on Khalid (Abubakr Ali), an aspiring artist who wants to break free of what his parents want to pursue a college career in arts. Khalid (or Khal) also starts to develop feelings for Kelsa. However, since she is trans, he believes he’ll lose his best friend [who recently created a Parler account and spews many conservative talking points] and is afraid to know what his family will think. Kelsa, on the other hand, thinks Khal is just nice to her because it’ll score him some “woke” points, but the two slowly fall in love, which causes a mix of admiration and uproar amongst students.
Anything’s Possible soars when Porter puts Eva Reign and Abubakr Ali together. Their chemistry fires off all cylinders and is a terrific on-screen match. Reign is a bonafide star, and she holds her own during the film’s more emotional scenes, usually involving Renée Elise Goldsberry, who is also excellent. Goldsberry plays Kelsa’s overprotective mother, Selene. And even if her character checks a box full of “overprotective parent of a coming-of-age film” cliché, Goldsberry knows how to play a character full of emotional resonance, which makes any scene involving her and Reign feel impactful.
Every major supporting character also makes an impact, notably Courtnee Carter and Grant Reynolds as Em and Otis. Em is one of Kelsa’s friends who completely ignore her once Khal chooses Kelsa instead of her, and Otis is the Parler friend mentioned before. Both of them don’t want to accept their fate and team up to bring down Kelsa and Khal. Of course, it doesn’t work, but their performances during those dramatic moments add an incredible amount of emotional profundity to the scene and give Kelsa’s arc more depth than if she had solely hung out with Khal during the entire runtime.
Where Anything’s Possible fails aren’t necessarily in its predictable story. The trans community deserves to feel seen and to have many predictable rom-coms in which cis-gendered men and women currently dominate. Instead, most of its flaws come from its technical craft, which is so unimpressive it almost feels like Porter and cinematographer Andrei Bowden Schwartz decided to copy the aesthetic of a Hallmark movie. What’s even more egregious is how the film visually represents text conversations through dull bubbles permeating the frame or showing the cellphone instead of giving those incremental text conversations (or languishing sequences where Khal posts on Reddit) some form of life to them. Of course, there’s nothing duller than showing a cellphone screen or text bubbles on the screen instead of visually representing them inventively. Ms. Marvel showed Hollywood how to represent text conversations from now on, making them part of the show’s diegesis. Still, Anything’s Possible does nothing of note in the technical department, save for one mildly amusing musical number during its end credits.
Now it may sound like a nitpick, but those moments hinder the film’s emotional progression, which stops to pop-up text bubbles on the screen, or Reddit forums where users will read their posts through a video (which gives a visual look of who the user who posted his thoughts looks like). None of these move the camera meaningfully or give insight into the characters. The editing is also rough, especially its transitions, which always cuts at the most random places to move from one scene to the next.
And while Billy Porter doesn’t have his craft figured out just yet, he’s able to hone in on Anything’s Possible two leads to elevate the film’s more predictable material and bring a joyous and groundbreaking coming-of-age rom-com that will make the trans community feel seen in ways which weren’t achieved before in Hollywood cinema. 2022 has been an excellent year for compelling LGBTQ+-driven content by mainstream studios that defy clichés and stereotypes. And while Anything’s Possible’s story is filled with clichés, the fact that MGM greenlit a film featuring a trans delivering an impeccable performance and sharing terrific chemistry with her male co-star is enough for me to recommend it to anyone looking for an enjoyable time at home.
Film: Rating: 
Director: Billy Porter
Stars: Eva Reign, Abubakr Ali, Renée Elise Goldsberry, Courtnee Carter, Kelly Lamor Wilson, and Grant Reynolds.
Runtime: 98 minutes
Country: USA
