TIFF 2024: 'Really Happy Someday' Is a Different Kind of Transition Story

By Kayleigh Donaldson | Film | September 13, 2024 |

By Kayleigh Donaldson | Film | September 13, 2024 |

Z (Breton Lalama) is a singer. As a child, he performed in musicals like Les Miserables and was praised for his beautiful voice. But since transitioning and starting testosterone treatments, his voice is cracking and changing. What once came to him so easily is now gone, and without singing, he’s not sure who he is. As he tries to reconcile his new self with the old one, he tries to find a different path in life through his relationships, his new bartending job, and singing lessons with a kind vocal coach.

This slice-of-life Toronto-set drama, directed by J Stevens and co-written by Lalama, is thoroughly dedicated to exploring the myriad forms that trans life takes. Z practices his scales while doing his T shot. He talks about facial hair growth with Santi (Xavier Lopez), his hot boss and fellow trans dude. He gets laid a lot (we celebrate that) and is a good friend. But it’s never always good. There are setbacks. Z is conflicted about the changes to his body and life, including his romance with his girlfriend Danielle (Khadijah Roberts-Abdullah), who is eager to move them both to New York and start afresh.

The process of change and of loving yourself is not a linear one. Really Happy Someday was shot chronologically over the course of a year and Stevens makes good use of how the mundanities of life bring with them many ups and downs. Z can have a good class with his vocal coach but the next one might suck because his voice is in a constant state of flux. There’s no judgment towards Z for his struggles, including one scene where he has brief doubts about his transition and smashes his testosterone dose on the floor. Trans representation is getting incrementally better on the big screen but it remains rare to see such candour. It does not delegitimize a trans person’s identity if they have questions about their journey, kids!

His is also not the only queer story on display here. Santi is a trans man further along in his transition who runs a successful business and becomes a mentor of sorts to Z (who describes his new boss as having real dad energy. And daddy energy. They are two very different concepts.) He’s a good friend but also not immune to flirting up a storm with his cute new colleague. His presence here made me wonder why we don’t see more stories about trans people who are past the early days of transition.

There are many challenges to transitioning, and for Z, the shifts in his voice are the toughest. The film opens with him attending an audition for what he hopes could lead to his grand return to the stage. He chooses ‘On My Own’ from Les Miz, the one he played eight shows a week as a kid. But his voice cracks when he aims for a high note, and he is quickly dismissed. The rejection is immediately followed by his agent telling him to abandon musical theatre because he ‘ruined’ his voice. Z’s voice and his vocal lessons are a microcosm for his wider trans journey. Musical scales representing the ups and downs of life isn’t especially subtle but in practice with such a naturalistic and unmannered film, it’s welcome.

Some of the most moving scenes are between Z and Shelly (Ali Garrison), his vocal coach. She’s got a big smile, lots of chintzy jewellery, and an aura of optimism that helps Z to step out of his more pessimistic moments. When Z bemoans how different and unfamiliar singing now feels to him, Shelly smartly wonders if that was the whole point of him being there. He has to learn new techniques and aim for a different register, but he also has to accept that it wasn’t a binary choice between his identity and his voice.

The ways that change is represented not as examples of moral failures or victories here is what makes Really Happy Someday sing. It’s not a sign that you flopped if a loving long-term romance comes to its natural end, just as it’s not the end of the world if you have to reassess your relationship with alcohol after many years of it not being a big deal. Moreover, Z’s story has room for passion. He has a healthy sex life with partners of all genders, and the depiction of one such scene between two trans men is both welcome and sexy as all hell.

Really Happy Someday is aptly titled. It’s a gently told but candid tale about the non-linear path towards happiness. You may not get a fairy-tale ending — few of us ever do — but you will experience moments of pleasure and, if you’re lucky, find that state of contentment when you’re at ease with the person you are and are becoming. That’s a universal theme but seeing it through the specificities of a trans man’s life offers a different kind of perspective on transition, in all meanings of the word.

Really Happy Someday had its world premiere at the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival. It currently does not have a release date.