High schooler Kelsa (Eva Reign) finds pleasure in discussing the animals she loves on her YouTube channel, seeking solace in the fact that their names tend to be derived from what makes them unique. The detail comes out in actor, singer and author Billy Porter’s enjoyable and entertaining feature debut, “Anything’s Possible,” which is streaming now on Amazon Prime. Both intentionally and otherwise, the young adult rom-com wrestles with — and tries to unpack the implication of — uniqueness.
YouTube is where Kelsa also discusses and documents her transitioning experiences, and although she’s nominally in school, she feels most comfortable talking about this side of her life on camera. Kelsa’s mother (Renée Elise Goldsberry) loves and supports her, but out of fear that her transit will define her or that she will be instrumentalized for “waking up points”, she usually avoids talking about it.
This begins to change when she meets a cool, cute and sensitive artist boy, Khal (Abubakr Ali). As the romance blossoms, their relationship forces them to examine their responsibilities and what they can and cannot evade in the real world, where there are frictions between self-preservation, covenant, community and (the involvement of) harmful political contexts.
At times, it feels like Reign and Ali struggle to make their lovely chemistry noticeable under Porter’s tangled but unremarkable hand. Both are able to play naturally in front of the camera, Reign with a bewitching smirk and Ali with pensive eyes. Yet what could be sharply defined in their performances is grosser.
The film gets bogged down in contradiction, like its protagonist: unsure of the centrality of its identity politics and impact, it wants its stakes to be high enough to be a believable teen watch, but it also just wants to leave the quality human of its history shines. Unlike its main characters, “Anything’s Possible” is never really sure if it wants to be distinctive or just another kid in school.
Everything is possible
Rated PG-13 for language, thematic material, sexual material, and brief teen drinking. Duration: 1h36. Watch on Amazon Prime Video.
