Kelsa Renard loves animals: their unique names, their traits and their abilities to survive. And on Kelsa’s regular podcasts, those wonderful beasts are her main subject. That, and her personal struggles and experiences being trans.
The connection between those two subjects might seem a bit odd. But to Kelsa, it’s a completely natural tie: survival.
This year, however—the last year of high school before heading off to college—needs to be different. This year Kelsa wants to … thrive.
But what does that look like? It turns out, it looks a lot like a guy named Khal.
He’s an average looking dude, kinda shaggy and cute and sorta like a lost mutt on the street corner. But there’s something different about him. He’s funny, weird, a bit off center. He excels at art and just about everything that Kelsa isn’t necessarily drawn to. In fact, Kelsa’s friend Em is the one he ought to be interested in. She’s certainly interested in him.
But Khal can’t really gaze sighingly at anybody but Kelsa. It’s been like that for a while.
Kelsa tried to gently break the transgender subject with him, but surprise, Khal already knew. He had sought out a certain obscure podcast about animals and the struggles of a trans girl. As they talked, it also became clear that he wasn’t just trying to score “woke points” as Kelsa feared. He wasn’t trying to score anything. He simply liked Kelsa … a lot.
Can they possibly have a relationship? Can this even feasibly work? Just the fact that Khal gave Kelsa flowers—in front of Em, no less—kinda set the school on fire. Em was furious; the whole school was electrified by the drama; and Otis, Khal’s best friend, suddenly started wondering if his best bud was gay.
But one thing both Khal and Kelsa are mutually interested in is that subject of survival, and the idea of thriving together in their last year of high school. And that might just be enough.
Both Kelsa and Khal are really nice people. They’re both caught in the eye of the transgender storm at school, but Kelsa makes it clear that just being a person, being Kelsa and nothing else, would be preferable to all the drama. “Not everything is about gender,” Kelsa notes.
It’s implied that Kelsa’s father left the family because of Kelsa and her transgenderism. But Kelsa’s mother declares, “You are the one thing that we got right.”
It’s mentioned that Khal and his family are Muslim. But that faith doesn’t seem to play a huge role in their lives other than the fact that their family is close, and the fact that Khal is a “perpetually nice” guy who wants to do right by his friends.
Khal and Kelsa go view a collection of Andy Warhol artwork. One large mural contains depictions of Jesus. Their art teacher notes that her mother and Andy Warhol’s mother both attended the same church.
Khal and Kelsa talk about genetics and evolution—Kelsa believing that humans accidently won the “genetic lottery,” while Khal believes that space aliens interceded on our behalf.
It’s made plain through various conversations that Kelsa and Khal’s teen peers are well versed in the area of sex. Someone mentions that people ought to loosen up and “experiment with gay porn,” for instance. Khal’s brother mentions that he read through Khal’s online searches, including his porn searches. Khal connects with people on Reddit who seek help with their emotional and sexual relationships. A teen girl is accused of poking holes in her boyfriend’s condoms. There are comments about oral sex. Etc.
Kelsa and Khal are pretty new at having a relationship, however, and we see them slowly progress through holding hands, openly showing affection and then kissing and making out. (Khal strips off his shirt for some kissing and caressing at one point.) It’s implied that their intimacy goes further over their year together, but we never see any of that on screen.
Kelsa tends to wear outfits that reveal quite a bit of midriff and upper body skin. Some other teens wear lowcut, cleavage-baring tops.
Kelsa’a transgender identity is discussed and commented on—in both positive and negative ways—but it’s never closely discussed in a sexual sense. And though Khal’s sexuality is questioned in light of his attraction to Kelsa (does that make him gay?) it too is brushed aside as irrelevant.
A high school art teacher shows her class an abstract paining if a couple showering together. And an Andy Warhol exhibit shows pictures and detailed biographical information on transgender icon Candy Darling and drag queen activist Marsha P Johnson. We see an older gay couple sitting intimately together.
Khal’s parents determine that he is gay. Kelsa’s friend Chris threatens Khal and demands that he be ready to “be down and get to it” with Kelsa.
During a light tussle in the girl’s locker room, Kelsa’s friend Em falls over a bench and breaks her finger. Khal and Otis get into a fight, too, after Otis calls Kelsa a “dude” with a “mental disorder” and then makes crude comments about Khal and Kelsa’s sexual activities. They push and shove and eventually Khal punches his former friend in the face.
The dialogue contains one unfinished f-word (and a text calling someone “sick A F”). Other than those “almost” crudities, there are seven s-words and one or two uses each of the words “a–,” “d–n,” “b–ch,” “crap” and “h—.”
God’s and Jesus’ names are both misused. And there are a handful of crude references to both male and female genitalia.
Teens at a party drink beer and booze.
The film makes it plain that having conservative viewpoints should be frowned upon by teens and society at large. Otis mentions joining the conservative social media site, Parler, for instance, and Khal calls it “messed up” and balks at the idea of ever even thinking about those sorts of ideas. “I’m not a sociopath,” he states.
In the swirl of gender talk at the high school, a couple girls go into the boy’s bathroom and try to use the urinals. A group of students noisily protest for the acceptance of nontraditional gender roles.
Near the end of Anything’s Possible, Kelsa makes note of the marsh harrier and mentions that some of the males of that predator bird species can sometimes change the color of their plumage—transitioning from their native dull, light grey to the rich golden-brown color of the female of the species.
That’s a fitting image for this cute and bouncy transgender rom-com tale. For that golden bird becomes a “beautiful, soaring trans girl” in Kelsa’s admiring eyes.
It’s also fitting because, well, image is everything with this pic.
Anything’s Possible looks every bit the romcom that it is. Its leads are cute and sweet. Their relationship is, for the most part, a bubbly, honeyed affair. And though there are short angry moments when Kelsa pushes back in frustration—against teens and adults who are too smothering, too selfish or too faux woke—the film is designed to lift spirits and go out with a group musical number and a smile.
Sure, Kelsa’s gender and sexuality are both intrinsically woven into this love story—along with a general acceptance that high schoolers are going to be a very sexually active group. But tough, real-world questions about gender and sex are quickly skimmed over and dismissed.
In fact, that’s one of this movie’s biggest problems. Anything’s Possible makes it clear that gender questions need to be, no, must be, completely irrelevant in today’s culture. You must accept and embrace the sunny side of anyone’s chosen identity because it’s … theirs. Those who raise questions about sexual choices or biology are quite simply harmful aberrations in this film’s estimation: hateful relics who are worthy of rejection.
Of course, that kind of crayon-colored perspective isn’t very realistic or rational. Nor, obviously, does it have much time for any sort of biblical understanding of gender or God’s role as a Creator who lovingly shapes our bodies and identities in His image. In fact, to suggest that anyone but the individual has a say about the intertwined questions of gender and sexual identity is an idea this film would utterly reject.
But who said a trans romcom had to be rational? Or biblical? It just has to be pretty. Romantic. And easy to cheer for.
That’s this pic’s soaring, golden-feathered goal. Never mind all those hard questions.
After spending more than two decades touring, directing, writing and producing for Christian theater and radio (most recently for Adventures in Odyssey, which he still contributes to), Bob joined the Plugged In staff to help us focus more heavily on video games. He is also one of our primary movie reviewers.
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