Anything’s Possible parents guide

Anything’s Possible Parent Guide

Instead of hammering home its trans-positive message, this moie focuses on telling a sweet story of love, acceptance, and growth.

Overall B-

Amazon: Kelsa and Khal are the talk of the school. A new romance is fun, but it will test them in ways they never expected.

Release date July 22, 2022

Violence B
Sexual Content B-
Profanity C
Substance Use C

Why is Anything’s Possible rated PG-13? The MPAA rated Anything’s Possible PG-13 for strong language, thematic material, sexual material, and brief teen drinking.

Run Time: 96 minutes

Parent Movie Review

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.

Directed by Billy Porter. Starring Eva Reign, Simone Joy Jones, and Abubakr Ali. Running time: 96 minutes. Theatrical release July 22, 2022. Updated

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Anything’s Possible
Rating & Content Info

Why is Anything’s Possible rated PG-13? Anything’s Possible is rated PG-13 by the MPAA for strong language, thematic material, sexual material, and brief teen drinking.

Violence: A character grabs someone by the throat and makes graphic, violent threats. An angry girl paintballs the house of her ex-boyfriend. Someone’s finger is accidentally broken. Two guys push and punch each other.
Sexual Content: A major character is transgender. There’s mention of wearing a bra: a mild slang term for breasts is used. Someone jokes about experimenting with gay porn. There’s mention of erectile dysfunction. A trans person briefly mentions hormone therapy. There’s non-explicit mention of “sexual advances”. An abstract artwork shows two people in the shower. A teen couple talk about “making out” and kiss passionately. Teens make out and the guy removes his shirt. There is a scene of mildly suggestive dancing. Teens kiss in multiple scenes.
Profanity:  There are 17 terms of deity, nine scatological curses and a variety of crude anatomical expressions as well as a vulgar term for women. There are also three minor profanities, an abbreviation used for a sexual expletive and a sexual hand gesture.
Alcohol / Drug Use: Teens drink alcohol at a party.

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Anything’s Possible Parents' Guide

Kelsa wants to go far away from home for university so no one will know about her past and she can be accepted for who she is now. Although that’s what she wants, she struggles with the idea that just knowing her current persona is incomplete so she asks, “What would you rather, the existential despair of not being known or the existential despair of being known and being rejected?”  What would you prefer if you were Kelsa? Would you want to be with people who have known you throughout your life’s journey or would you want to make a fresh start with people who have no preconceptions?

Home Video

Related home video titles:

There are some films with LGBTQ characters that are aimed at wide audiences. The Half of Itis a romance with a lesbian main character. Cinderella features Billy Porter as a fabulous godmother in drag.

Another young couple must decide what happens to their relationship as university looms in Hello, Goodbye, and Everything in Between. After senior year, a young woman heads for a beach community to find new sides to herself before she leaves for college in Along for the Ride.

A mixed race couple navigates social disapproval of their relationship in The World We Make.