In some ways, Something’s Attainable is simply one other teen film. It’s crammed with questionable vogue decisions, boppy needle-drops and naff slang (“Sick AF”, “he’s fireplace”). It’s even received a scene the place scandal spreads by means of the college corridors like digital wildfire. However whereas Pose star Billy Porter’s surprisingly low-key directorial debut could not reinvent the high-school romcom wheel, its daring, tender-hearted exploration of the romance that blossoms between Black trans teen Kelsa (Eva Reign) and her cisgender Muslim classmate Khal (Abubakr Ali) broadens the style’s horizons with a refreshing lightness of contact.
As meet-cutes go, Kelsa and Khal’s comes straight from the “opposites entice” playbook. Having come out to the complete assist of her fiercely protecting mom (a wonderful Renée Elise Goldsberry) and BFFs Em (Courtnee Carter) and Chris (Kelly Lamor Wilson), Kelsa is cool and assured, vlogging about her love of animals and transition story on YouTube. Khal, then again, is an artist with traditionalist mother and father, a poisonous greatest pal, and a reputation he shortens so others get it proper. He’s quiet, mild-mannered, and anonymously provides relationship recommendation on Reddit (the seamless integration of social media is certainly one of many Heartstopper resemblances right here). When the pair accomplice up in artwork class, nevertheless, a primary assembly charged with barely contained full-beam smiles and suitably cringe between-the-lines flirting about paint shades — all performed with an ideal mixture of curiosity and nervousness by spectacular newcomers Reign and Ali — a whirlwind romance begins.
In a cinematic panorama the place LGBTQ+ narratives have been historically trauma-bound, an unapologetic celebration of queer pleasure like this lands sweetly.
Kelsa and Khal’s relationship isn’t all kisses within the grass, whisper-quiet heart-to-hearts and hand-holding on the zoo — though there’s fairly a little bit of that, and such intimate scenes are the place Porter’s directorial eye for bodily proxemics and the soulful nuances of Ximena García Lecuona’s script are to be discovered. Points confronted by the trans group floor over the movie’s course, creating battle: Khal’s greatest mate is homophobic; a jealous Em courts bathroom-ban controversy; Chris’ cafeteria activism raises questions of performative allyship.
As a rule, dramas right here resolve as readily as they floor, a recurring characteristic of an image painted in broad strokes (all the pieces that isn’t Kelsa and Khal) and effective particulars (all the pieces that’s). Nevertheless, in a cinematic panorama the place LGBTQ+ narratives have been historically trauma-bound, an unapologetic celebration of queer pleasure like this, starring a Black trans actress, written by a non-binary screenwriter, and directed by a queer icon, which finally reminds us that each one any of us desires is to be accepted for who we’re, lands sweetly.
