Coming out to your family is the worst. Except if you have a family that is as progressive as insert leftists joke here, other than that it feels impossible to tell your parents that you place yourself under a rainbow. I’m a city succer who came out in their 20s, and i always bow down to people who were able to come out in their teens, let alone in the south in front of a conservative family. That’s the case for non-binary teen Ben DeBacker in the sweet coming of age film ‘I Wish You All the Best’ written and directed by actress/writer/director Tommy Dorfman based on the book of the same name by Mason Deaver. Dorothy claims that many queer teens feel this universal ache for love and understanding their own identity, and offers them a slimmer of bright light through the endearing narration about love and acceptance. Looking back, I do understand why quite many Floridians I know moved to new york instead.
Movie review
After revealing their gender identity to their parents (played by Amy Landecker and Judson Mills), Ben DeBacker, a 16-year-old character played by Corey Fogelmanis, is thrown out of the house and subsequently contacts his older sister, Hannah, who hasn’t been in touch for a long time. Daddario’s character gets married to a high school English teacher Thomas (Cole Sprouse) and together with their baby, they settle in Raleigh, North Carolina, and start a new life. As a non binary teen looking for acceptance, Ben’s search for peace comes to an end when he meets an art teacher called Ms. Lyons (Lena Dunham) and finds a friend, Nathan (Miles Gutierrez-Riley), who introduces him to Sophie (Lisa Yamada) and Meleika (Lexi Underwood). With a supportive family, Ben makes an effort to be emotionally stable and be his real and true self.
Fantastic A couple of lame kids write a love story and think they’ve pushed for something but come on, I wish you all the best. It’s time Hollywood stopped glorifying the trauma that had been prevalent in the young adult genre throughout the 2010s.Rather than something like Love, Simon, where its premise revolved around a children’s movie about a kid coming out in the most constrictively heterosexual studio environment, it is Deaver’s text which touches Dorfman a little differently a little more honestly and maybe a little more tender. She calms down the baby queers saying, “Don’t worry, everything is going to be okay, baby gay. I have got you.” In her first film though, Dorfman makes Ben’s experience as free from any triggers that will upset her audience as possible and manages to do so with quite a bit of touching gravitas. In the beginning, however, she does not narrate that conflict but demonstrates how Ben and their parents felt after one of the parents came out.
Dorfman must’ve seen Ban Va Tik Tok for hours because she’s just that good at developing her characters within the framework of the young Gen Z cast and appeal to their audience. There is no social hierarchy in the high schools of today, for the queers are the hip ones and gossip about their viral influencers like King Princess. Given that Barbara is one of these stars, she reinforces the differentiation by using her songs in the film where it is appropriate. Within seconds, Ben meets their friends Nathan, Mel and Soph.
Dorfman saw the group of friends in Love Simon and thought that the guys were pathetic and proceeded to write a better bunch of friends that helps Ben to grow in his new identity effortlessly. Most of the affection comes from Nathan, who has an excellent friend to lover dynamic while helping Ben around figuring out who they are. There are a few exquisite moments where they are joined by lines such as, “So, is it giving they/them?”.
It is great that in I Wish You All the Best, the author demystifies the opposite perspective of American culture of generation Z for the kids who are aggressive towards older people trying to understand things they are used to. There is a situation where Ben that is being impressed by Thomas who wears a gender based subject as a shield makes a very personal attack towards him – “You cannot say that please”. “So Gen-Z, but you have my Black side saying, ‘Uh oh, baby, you better chill out.’”.
But as it’s a high school coming of age drama, the protagonist has to end up falling for an art teacher who inevitably becomes his friend. It is funny how this time around, it is Ms.
Lyons is interpreted by Lena Dunham (whom I do got a jump scare from). To my surprise, Dunham’s odd behavior actually suits the role of an art teacher quite well and she assists Ben so effectively that he manages to blossom into their identity and, eventually, finds his voice.
Ben and Hannah’s relationship and the bond that they both share is one of the major highlights in the story. After being abused by their parents for most of their childhood and now once again moving to a new life together, they do everything to become a family and strengthen what is already a very weak bond. Daddario has been the best she has ever been, evoking that cousin we have all seen but was never that close to. There’s good familial chemistry between Daddario and Fogelmanis and sometimes, her natural chemistry with him results in good scenes. Similarly, I also loved the maturity that Cole Sprouse brought to Thomas, a brother-dad who is quite corny in comedic ways but sweet around Ben and tries to be a teacher and a guardian while getting to know them.
The performance of I Wish You All the Best solely belongs to Corey Fogelmanis. Among other things, they demonstrate an array of power and control that slowly works to bring down their anxiety driven walls. These barriers expand as time goes forward and thanks to their adaption, Ben appears much more confident and settled in their space. Fogelmanis reflects this perfectly.
For a rather short young adult novel, the film’s short and fairly sweet tendency is somehow overly sweet to suit the structural adaptation of the film.
In the second part of the film, Dorfman builds relentless syrupy cues, that can be said to be, excessive and overbearing, (if I may add, I wept). Nevertheless, it does not take away the good this film shall do to the queer youths of today.
Touching, painful, and with so much optimism, ‘I Wish You All the Best’ is a nice LGBTQ+ coming-of-age film that will definitely assist a lot of children these days in particular the ones who are in the closet and do not have much support in feeling represented.
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