Anything’s Possible Parent Guide

Kelsa (Eva Reign) is caught up in the vortex of high school relationship melodrama. Her best friend, Chris (Kelly Lamor Wilson) is on the cusp of a break-up. Her other best friend, Em (Courtnee Carter) has a crush on Khal (Abubakr Ali), the guy Kelsa likes. And now Khal has given flowers to Kelsa – in front of Em. Their fellow students are avidly following the drama because there is another significant factor: Kelsa is trans.

At the beginning of the school year, Kelsa tells the followers of her YouTube channel, “This year’s goal is to find out more than how to survive in this world. I want to find out how to thrive.” For Kelsa, thriving involves proudly wearing her feather boa to school, aiming high for college applications, and overcoming her fear of relationships. Khal, too, wants to live his dreams and not just bow to the expectations of others. Khal does so by pursuing Kelsa despite a homophobic best friend and making his own future plans, even when they conflict with his parents’ wishes.

There’s a lot happening in this script and novice director Billy Porter does a great job of keeping the plot moving while making his characters believable and appealing. This is a winsome little story, with characters who are not afraid to be vulnerable and honest. Anything’s Possible addresses difficult issues like transphobia without being too heavy-handed. The story could easily be didactic, depressing, or preachy, but Porter avoids the temptation to hammer home a rigid agenda, choosing instead to tell a sweet story of love, kindness, acceptance, and growth.

Compared to other adolescent rom-coms, negative content here is about average. There are lots of scenes of young people kissing (even removing the guy’s shirt in one scene) and there are mild sexual references in conversation. There is minimal plot related violence without visible injuries, and a brief scene of adolescent alcohol consumption. The script contains frequent profanities, mostly moderate or low level. Amazon has rated this movie 16+ but the content puts it squarely in PG-13 territory.

Rom-com fans will enjoy this film, and it certainly fills void for LGBTQ teens and their allies who seek greater representation. Parents with traditional views of sexuality may be uneasy about watching this movie but this is a fairly clean film, and it’s a low-risk way to see the world from the perspective of a trans teen. Maybe if all of us – gay, straight, religious, secular, pro-choice, pro-life, immigrant, indigenous, native born – could see the world from multiple viewpoints we would all be able to get along more harmoniously? Anything’s possible.