From “Clueless” and “Easy A” to “The Princess Diaries” and “She’s All That,” getting-ready scenes are standard fare for teen comedies of all shapes and stripes. But the new “She’s the He” from Obscured Releasing announces itself as something truly special when a close-up shot of a CD emerges from inside a retro disc player — with the word “clatter” sweetly doodled on screen.
Soon after, a needle drop of Towa Bird’s “Drain Me!” (was that album even on CD?) ushers in debut filmmaker Siobhan McCarthy’s adorable genderqueer fantasy. And the script’s very cute but deeply dumb leading man, Alex (Nico Carney), climbs a flight of stairs toward his best friend’s bedroom door.
Shouting through the white barrier over loud pop music, Alex says the duo need to spend less time together so that people won’t think they’re dating. You still can’t see who he’s talking to. But going by the rules set out in every John Hughes movie ever, Alex sounds like he’s talking to a girl — and he is.
Of course, accepting that fact on an emotional level is a complex journey that will take both high schoolers and the countless chaotic characters in their orbit the full hour and 21 minutes to unpack. Meet Ethan (Misha Osherovich), a senior who won’t have the courage to come out as a transgender woman until Alex’s misguided plan to sneak into the girls’ locker room forces a reckoning with the obvious.
It’s pretty clear that Ethan is trans early on in McCarthy’s script. How else would a mostly quiet teen arrive at the strange conclusion that the best possible way to convince their classmates their pal wasn’t gay was to instead become a woman themselves? Matters only get more complicated when Alex has an even crazier idea than Ethan, requiring not one but two gender-expansive makeovers for the would-be college kids.
For good or bad, a student pretending to be trans so they can secure inappropriate access to another student is a wildly provocative premise — one that seems risky at best and designed to generate real-world backlash at worst. In less skilled or intuitive hands, “She’s the He” might easily collapse under the widespread political panic surrounding gender identity and adolescent self-discovery in the U.S. today. Instead, writer/director McCarthy creates one of the loveliest teen indies, first and foremost about good old-fashioned friendship, to arrive in recent memory.
Even more charming than it is culturally ambitious, this 2025 SXSW favorite hits theaters at a moment when LGBTQ stories are once again increasingly expected to justify their existence through tragedy, activism, or educational value. The goofy antics of “She’s the He” manage all that to an extent without seeming too effortful, as McCarthy embraces the grand tradition of coming-of-age films that understand how profoundly weird it is to be young — no matter who you are.
Like “Booksmart,” “Bottoms,” and the Disney Channel originals that once convinced an entire generation of LGBTQ kids that shopping malls were magical kingdoms, “She’s the He” transforms ordinary spaces into unlikely sites of personal possibility. As with most titles in the category, hallways become battlegrounds and bedrooms double as sanctuaries. But the handwritten flourishes decorating the frame persist throughout, while the movie’s carefully curated indie soundtrack reflects a candy-colored optimism that makes Ethan’s interior evolution feel at once bubbly, anxious, and joyful.
That approach pays off almost immediately with dialogue that isn’t always laugh-out-loud funny but is often far more intellectually clever than expected. In an early scene between Ethan and Alex’s crush, Sasha (Malia Pyles), the well-meaning but edgy teen casually refers to Ethan as a girl. “I’m not a girl,” Ethan replies, trying to clarify that she’s not especially “girly” before getting cut off. Without missing a beat, Sasha shoots back: “Well, that’s transphobic!”
It’s one of the funniest jokes in the entire misadventure because it’s doing three recognizable things at once. Sasha is affirming Ethan as a trans girl, misunderstanding Ethan as a trans girl, and accidentally revealing how difficult it can be to support someone when you’re more interested in policing their behavior than trying to earnestly process it.
McCarthy doesn’t paint Alex and Ethan as perfect allies or perfect victims, instead choosing to explore the shortcomings in their friendship through mostly gender-neutral growing pains. That generosity extends throughout the ensemble. Tatiana Ringsby’s Forest serves as an excellent sounding board for the friends, helping foster conversations that prove far more mature than their drag-inspired conflict initially suggests. And as Ethan’s mother Mary, Suzanne Cryer delivers one of the strongest dramatic performances. The former “Silicon Valley” scene-stealer grounds the film with an elegant portrait of parental fear. She’s caring without coddling and serious about her kid’s safety without becoming cruel.
Even the would-be bullies benefit from McCarthy’s overarching refusal to flatten people into PSA talking points. As the consequences of Ethan’s revelation and Alex’s spectacularly terrible scheme start spiraling out of control, “She’s the He” never settles for the kind of stale dynamic that might define its lead’s unique obstacles by her trans adolescence alone. The conflict feels contemporary without growing too cynical, and the core relationship stakes seem real without skewing hopeless.
If “She’s the He” sometimes falls short of legendary status, that’s largely because it leaves you wanting more. Some of the zanier gags rush by too quickly to totally land, and Alex’s over-egged boyishness occasionally pushes the adult actor a little too close to Frankie Muniz territory to be taken seriously when it counts. That said, Carney remains hugely entertaining throughout, and his chemistry with Osherovich is infectious enough to make you smile.
“She’s the He” sometimes feels surprisingly slight at just 81 minutes. McCarthy invents personas so weird and appealing that you wish they had more room to just exist together; even Aparna Nancherla’s delightfully eccentric teacher feels like a comic weapon only partly deployed.
Still, there’s something fitting about a trans teen comedy released in 2026 that wraps things up too soon. By the time “She’s the He” reaches a climactic sequence set to “Time Warp” from “The Rocky Horror Picture Show,” McCarthy has successfully populated a landscape for fresh queer storytelling that feels at once grounded and otherworldly. Vomit, bloody tampons, and Ingrid Michaelson await at the end, and somehow even that feels triumphant.
Ultimately, watching Ethan dare to imagine a future for herself proved too wonderful a feeling not to share in. “She’s the He” might not be the funniest or most fearless film about trans identity to find fans this year. But it understands that while queerness isn’t contagious, hope is.
Grade: B+
From Obscured Releasing, “She’s the He” opened in New York on June 5 and in Los Angeles on June 19. It’s available on VOD starting June 30.
Want to stay up to date on IndieWire’s film reviews and critical thoughts? Subscribe here to our newsletter, In Review by David Ehrlich, in which our Chief Film Critic and Head Reviews Editor rounds up the best new reviews and streaming picks along with some exclusive musings — all only available to subscribers.
