Things take a turn for the worse when Ben DeBacker (Corey Fogelmanis), the nonbinary lead character in I Wish You All the Best, directed by Tommy Dorfman, comes out to his parents.
The fragmented dialogue evokes a feeling of anticipation. As melancholy is etched on the characters’ faces we see Ben going through notes on a flash card. We see them fidgeting apprehensively towards the kitchen.
All of a sudden, Ben is speaking to his sister Hannah, whom he has not talked to in years, played by Alexandra Daddario. The teen, who is from North Carolina, is found huddled in the corner of a mini-supermarket bathroom with no shoes and socks that’ve been worn thin from age. Hannah’s frantic arrival gives a stark realization of how severe the situation actually is.
As viewers saw in the SXSW premiere, I Wish You All the Best grapples with the subject of Ben’s coming out and their integration into the family of their older sister, along with husband Cole Sprouse. Dorfman is the screenwriter of I Wish You All the Best, which is also based on Mason Deaver’s popular novel of the same name. The film I Wish You All the Best is a love and appreciation for every non-binary youth who went through what it’s like to be them and who did not forget to include even the most traumatic elements of their lives.
It evokes the spirit of a series like Heartstopper on Netflix, and boasts charm – quite reminiscent of The Sky Is Everywhere by Josephine Decker – to mask the more clumsier aspects of its look at teenage years.
The new domestic arrangement with Hannah is also a change that Ben takes his time to adjust to, since Hannah too had to endure their parents’ conservative attitudes. To make life easier for Ben, Hannah moves them to a different school, buys them clothes, and together with her spouse, assists them in looking for a job. Thereon, the relationship’s numerous secrets and awkwardness are replaced with a rather endearing desire to make up for the lack of understanding and communication.
The family relationship that brings together much of Fogelmanis’, Daddario’s and Sprouse’s efforts seldom reaches above a certain level of awkward. Part of that has to do with the film’s inconsistent tempo. In covering several plots, Dorfman overextends himself and has not enough time to allow the relationships to develop fully in the film. As a consequence, the film loses its rhythm at times and at others can be cloying which is reminiscent of TV shows such as This is us.
The change in pace is provided by Ben’s orientation in school and their relationships with an eccentric art teacher (fan favorite Lena Dunham), and a crush Nathan (Miles Gutierrez-Riley). In the earlier high school, Ben attempted to blend in the background, but this is rather impossible in this new town as people are curious about the teenager. An oversized bisexual who matches nail color to their outfit, Nathan contacts Ben instantly about their friend group.
The question of why Nathan finds Ben so interesting can be answered positively if Fogelmanis and Gutierrez-Riley’s sweet chemistry does not make their relationship appear contrived. As Ben and Nathan become closer, Dorfman embraces the realization of their intimacy, forcing Ben and Nathan to engage with each other more as realistic characters with genuine desires.
Apart from pursuing thoughts of Nathan, Ben actively makes quite a substantial amount of time with Ms.
Lyons. The role seems made for Dunham who embodies the quirks of an art teacher that has to help the socially anxious and self-doubters around her to find their peace in themselves. The director of Sharp Stick has a knack of introduction and dominating every frame she’s in with her trademark self-deprecating spirals. This complexity involves the struggle of her character to be condescending while being an empathetic administrator who sees Ben cater more to gender fluidity.
Dorfman’s portrayal of Ms. Lyons reflects her ethos in I Wish You All the Best. The film bears its heart on its sleeve and is self aware of its flaws yet has its meaning clear. Such ordinary mechanics of a smaller screen endeavour only becomes noticeable when Ben’s emotional life is chronicled.
In order to get the colour of such tense times, Dorfman uses wider shots where the teen’s clothes (costume design David Tabbert) show them transforming and feeling at home with their surroundings. The teenager now appears to be moving with the fluidity a person would expect when running towards freedom instead of hunching over in embarrassment at a very fearful angle in a corner of a mini-mart.
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