Writer and Director: Siohban McCarthy
Receiving its world premiere at this year’s BFI London Film Festival is Siobhan McCarthy’s feature debut, a trans high school comedy. Fast-moving and full of gags, this gender swap parody has its heart in the right place, but the constant wisecracks and the endless slapstick become wearying by the end of its 82 minutes.
Cis boy Alex wants to go out with (the female) Sasha, but is worried that everyone thinks he’s gay as he spends all of his time with best friend Ethan. Alex believes that the best way to get Sasha’s attention is to pretend that he and Ethan are trans women. Alex would then be welcomed into the girls’ group, and, eventually, Sasha would fall for his charms. But first, Alex and Ethan need clothes, and so they steal into the girls’ locker room, where they are caught red-handed.
It sounds like J. K. Rowling’s worst nightmare, but Alex perseveres. One girl asks if he’d rather be called Alexa, but he replies that Alex is just fine. Ethan is mortified to be caught, but, later at a girls’ only party, finds the clothes aren’t that bad after all. They fit just right and make Ethan feel at home. Ethan realises that she is trans. It’s all going well for Ethan until Alex blurts out the truth: he and Ethan were only masquerading as girls to get laid.
Featuring a cast of largely trans, nonbinary and queer actors, McCarthy’s film is nevertheless a high school film despite its risqué jokes and hand-drawn images of penises like scribbles in an exercise book that overlay some of the shots. We all know that everything will work out in the end and that Ethan will officially come out as trans by the end of the movie.
But it’s not quite as smart or hilarious as it thinks it is, highlighted by the series of very unfunny bloopers that play over the end credits. Nico Carney is the misguided, goofy Alex while Misha Osherovich is strong as Ethan, although the role is underwritten and Ethan comes across a little too passive at times. It would be good if Ethan had more agency or even more of the one-liners. Too often, this feels like Alex’s film.
While some scenes drag, like the one at the local thrift store where Alex and Nico don different dresses, the final fight scene comes with a delightful twist that will have the male viewers in the audience running for the aisles. If only the rest of the film were as well-played as this.
She’s the He is screening at the BFI London Film Festival 2025 from 8-19 October.
