There is a very long history of trans people, and general deviation from cisnormative societal expectations, being used in fiction, especially in film. These are often done without the involvement of trans people, and with little research into trans identities. It's why the most common depictions of trans people have been as sex workers, murder victims, or killers. Some of the most famous 'trans' people in film are Norman Bates from Psycho, and Buffalo Bill from The Silence of the Lambs, both twisted murderers who are not actually trans even in those stories, but who the public have come to see as transgender. And these negative, incorrect depictions have affected the very real lives of trans and gender non-conforming people the world over as anti-trans laws, restrictions, and hate campaigns are more prevalent now then ever. So it's not only a wonderful thing to see a story about transness created by a trans cast and crew, but using a transphobic bogeyman as the main conceit of the story and showing it for the ridiculous scenario it is.
She's the He tells the story of two life long friends, Alex (Nico Carney) and Ethan (Misha Osherovich), teen boys who go to what seems to be a fairly queer-accepting if odd school (some of the staff's attitude towards the LGBTQ+ students are wonderfully ridiculous). The problem they have is that because they're such good friends, people think that they're a gay couple. Whilst neither of them have an issue with being seen as gay from a homophobic stance, it's hurting their ability to date girls. And so they come up with a plan to help the girls in the school see them as potential matches, they pretend to come out as trans in order to gain access to the girls spaces.
This is where the film plays into the anti-trans scaremongering scenario of cis men pretending to be trans that's used to try and justify banning trans women from women's spaces. But instead of going the same direction as the awful Daily Wire anti-trans film Lady Ballers, it actually becomes a rather sweet story of self discovery as Ethan is surprised to find that she actually connects with the femineity she was at first emulating, and comes to realise that she is in fact a girl.
She's the He ends up taking this fake scenario that has been used to affect real world harm and flipped in on its head to become the basis for a coming of age teen comedy that ends up feeling more genuine, more heartfelt, and more important than most of the big name films in that genre. I think that this largely due to the fact that the film is being created by trans and queer people, people who understand how to handle these themes with more nuance and delicacy, whilst still being able to poke some fun at it and not being preachy; there's still an opportunity to laugh at guys in drag trying to be predatory without painting anyone who doesn't fall into a rigid gender binary as a villain.
The film also stands out for how it uses its cast to subvert gender. There has for a very long time been film and television where a trans woman would be played by a man in drag at worse, or by a cisgender woman at best, for example. Far too often trans people are excluded from taking part in stories that centre us, and when we are included it tends to be as someone who has already come out and transitioned. So to see a film using a trans man to play a cis man pretending to be a trans woman, and a non-binary person playing a closeted trans woman discovering her identity both are both amazing to see.
The film feels very bright and almost cartoonish at times. The colours are bold and saturated, and there will be bold, neon coloured words and drawings thrown onto the screen for emphasis and to shape the feel of the moment. The film also feels kind of nebulous as to when it's set, and almost feels like it could be set anytime over the last 30 years thanks to a lack of obvious technology and social media, and to the fashion. These elements give She's the He a quality that makes it feel a little removed from reality, one that creates its own kind of world, but one that I think will allow the film to endure a bit more as its not really tying itself down to any one time or place.
She's the He is marketed as a comedy, and it certainly is one, but there's a lot more depth to be found. There are some wonderfully toughing moments as we follow Ethan's journey of self discovery and coming out that I think a lot of trans people will be able to connect with, and that a lot of cis people will be sorely lacking from mainstream entertainment. She's the He manages to do way more than I was expecting, and ended up being an absolute delight.
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