Premiering internationally at the 69th BFI London Film Festival today, She’s The He is a coming-of-age comedy celebrating transness and friendship. Writer/director Siobhan McCarthy digs deep into what inspired it.
For too long, comedy has been plagued by jokes that come at the expense of communities of people. It’s a genre of film where, in the name of laughs, certain insensitivities are inexplicably let slide; an undergrowth for societal stagnation.
And that’s why She’s The He is such a refreshing turn of pace. This glorious coming-of-age comedy not only subtly shifts the expectations of what humour should look like in American teenage comedy, but it also celebrates transness in a unique way that’s vastly unexplored in mainstream cinema.
The film is full of heart, rich performances, laugh-out-loud set pieces and deeper, profound messaging. All-in-all, Siobhan McCarthy delivers an unimpaired, authentic emblem of what modern, open-minded comedy looks like. She’s The He is writer/director McCarthy’s debut full-length feature, but they handle the challenge with a gentility, and an understanding of the greater gravitas of the story – whilst keeping it immensely entertaining.
Today, 14th October, the film celebrates its International Premiere as part of the Official Selection at the 69th BFI London Film Festival; Wonderland toasts the achievement by asking McCarthy to round up five films that inspired them to make their wonderful debut.
Watch the She’s The Man trailer…
Check out Siobhan’s picks…
She’s The Man by Andy Fickman
This is an obvious one. Even the title, She’s The He is a direct reference to She’s The Man, but more than just that joke, She’s The Man is exactly the kind of unbothered, accidentally trans movie we were trying to make. It exists in a long list of comedies where the jokes don’t come from “passing” or a character’s ability to “pull off” a gender. She’s The Man, because it’s Shakespeare, is a comedy built on the disconnect between a character’s lived experience with gender and the gender they are presenting to the world. If that’s not a trans movie, I don’t know what is. Also Amanda Bynes was snubbed for the Oscar, she will always be famous to me.
Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl by Gore Verbinski
This is the best movie ever made. Watching Pirates when I was seven forever changed my brain chemistry, and it’s all over She’s The He. From the green cast lighting in the locker room fight, to the filthy, aged clothes that every character is wearing. Even the baroque drama and laundry list of sweaty close ups showing hot people in the baking sun. The aesthetics of Pirates and the casual, sexy, undeniable gender swap-ery of the film awoke something in me that will never let me rest.
Daisies by Věra Chytilová
Daisies is the quintessential girl movie. It is a film made in a moment of Czech history, where the country was reckoning with intense, violent, authoritarian control over their art making practices, which ran directly counter to the joy of being a Czech woman. Věra Chytilová fills the movie with careless, beautiful joy in femininity, even to the level of invention she gives to the actually form of filmmaking. Daisies is a perfect example of a film that is about nothing but joy, but was still banned in its home country because somehow that joy was counter to what the government mandated.
Malcolm In The Middle by Linwood Boomer
I know this isn’t a movie. But what it is, is a comedy about the joys and pains of being poor in America. And that is something we just don’t do anymore. This show looked like my childhood, the house was built like my childhood home, the chaos felt like my childhood home, and the attitude of seeing the comedy in being working class is such a core tenant to She’s The He. The taste of early 2000s TV is all over the production design of She’s The He and more broadly represents a taste that we have lost in American entertainment. More movies with cheap wood paneled cabinets and laminate countertops please. Everyone can’t have veneers on their teeth and live in a modernist cube.
Easy A by Will Gluck
This is the 2000s comedy for me. It is such a perfect mix of the weird religious conservativism of the time meeting the new liberalism of indie sleaze. It gave the world the blessing that is Emma Stone, and it is still a movie that seems to be the final breath in the era of comedies that I grew up on. It still has the shiny, beautiful, movie-star-making cinematography, the bleeding heart honesty, and the extremely liberal use of needle drops that I carry with me to any movie I make, and that still holds my heart.
Words – Ben Tibbits
