I Wish You All the Best Review: A Celebration of Being Uniquely You

In May of 2019, Mason Deaver burst onto the scene with their book, I Wish You All the Best. In it readers follow a young teen, Benjamin as they discover themselves and start to navigate the world identifying as non-binary.

It’s a beautiful coming-of-age story that inspired many queer youth to feel more comfortable in their own skin. So, naturally, some years later, Tommy Dorfman decided to create a film adaptation of Benjamin’s story.

This film puts visuals to characters who captured our hearts on the page. It gives queer kids everywhere something they can watch and hold onto to give them hope.

Much like other “straight” coming-of-age stories, I Wish You All the Best shows that no matter who we are, we all have similar fears, hopes, and concerns about life.

Unapologetically Diverse and Queer

First things first, this film doesn’t shy away from letting the audiences know from the start that this is going to be a queer-centered story. We start with Benjamin getting kicked out by their parents and are led to believe it’s because they are gay.

Not long after moving in with their sister, Benjamin gets to experience what it is like to be celebrated as they are instead of torn down for who they aren’t. Hannah and Thomas are the perfect foils to Mr. and Mrs. De Backer.

Where Benjamin and Hannah’s parents lead with religion-based love, Hannah and Thomas lead with open hearts, open minds, and open ears. They allow Benjamin to express themselves on their terms and never treat them negatively.

Watching Benjamin go from reserved and caged to expressive, silly, happy, and free is one of the best parts about this film. That journey alone is one that we can celebrate and appreciate, especially if we are part of the queer umbrella.

Aside from Benjamin’s journey of self-acceptance and self-love we get to see the many shades of queerness represented through characters like Nathan, Sophie, Chris, and so many others who just don’t have names. The varied representation ensures that more than atypical white fans will feel seen by this story.

Over the past few decades the battle for queer representation has been storied and a roller coaster of wins and setbacks. One of the biggest battles is getting a more diverse look at what these identities look like. After all, queer people come in all shapes, sizes, colors, and identities.

Mental Health Struggles Aren’t Brushed Under the Rug

One of the key things about Benjamin’s journey, especially in the book is their desire to feel as though they too can be carefree, happy, and belong. These struggles culminate in some very intensive depressive episodes for the character throughout the story.

Corey Fogelmanis as Benjamin does a beautiful job of giving these complicated thoughts and emotions nuance and depth. Their journey isn’t linear as demonstrated with the steps forward that occur only to slip back a moment later.

Benjamin has a momentary feeling of freedom and security when their sister takes them in, no questions asked. However, the moment things settle down into a routine they are just as messed up about their parent’s rejection as they were before they called Hannah.

Watching Fogelmanis not only cry freely at the most unexpected moments but also show the brokenness in Benjamin’s eyes really drives the character home. It makes Benjamin’s struggles feel that much more visceral and relatable.

Benjamin finally letting go and allowing Nathan to love them and support them is like a nice warm hug on a cold rainy day. Which is wonderfully balanced with Benjamin freaking out on Nathan the morning after they get physical and then ghosting him for days.

It shows that despite their best efforts, Benjamin still has depression and trauma that they need to work through. While not everyone benefits from seeing a therapist, I do think perhaps the story could’ve benefited from seeing Benjamin approach that as a method to heal more completely.

The De Backers

Speaking of trauma, the scenes with Benjamin either talking about their parents or talking to them are hard to stomach. It’s never easy to see parents not only reject their child for who they are but also gaslight them and try to change them.

The De Backers are the worst kinds of parents because they put their own desires and belief systems ahead of their children’s happiness. To start the film off with Benjamin being vulnerable enough to tell them their truth only to be shoved out of the home in the pouring rain without any shoes or a proper coat sets the tone for Benjamin’s whole arc.

By showing us the worst they’ve had to endure from the start, we are aware that Benjamin’s story isn’t going to be easy or even happy at times.

Something that Deaver did a great job of displaying in the novel of I Wish You All the Best, and Dorfman translates well to screen is Benjamin’s continued ache for the parents they wanted them to be. As an abused child, it can sometimes be hard to reconcile the horrible things with the love you still have for them as your parents.

Fogelmanis, under Dorfman’s direction, does a great job of slipping into those moments where Benjamin cries because they miss their parents more than they hate what they’ve done to them.

Then, the diabolic nature of these parents goes a step further when we find out that they kicked Hannah out for getting an abortion and then lied to Benjamin telling them she was a drug addict. What parent makes up a story that paints their child in a worse light than they actually are? Horrendous.

Luckily, we get to see a perfect balance on the other side of the scale with how Hannah and Thomas not only treat Benjamin throughout, but also each other. We see an easy fondness to the way they are with one another that is glaringly missing from their parents’ relationship.

It more than makes up for the ten minutes or so that we have to deal with the De Backers throughout the movie.

The Enduring Legacy

I Wish You All the Best is a film that will go down in the annals of queer media history for it’s hopeful conclusion and honest depiction of the queer experience. Despite all that Benjamin has gone through, they manage to find joy, identity, and hope.

The final sequence of Benjamin, who now wants to go by B, dancing their way through their neighborhood while wearing clothes that make them feel alive is the perfect bookend to an otherwise emotional film.

In the end, B is all of us.

They just want to exist as they are, in the way they are most comfortable without being attacked or dismissed. B has found that in Nathan, Sophie, Mel, and most importantly their guardians: Hannah and Thomas.

Often queer people have to find and develop their own families. B shows us that with the gathering of people for them at the art fair. So many people they’ve come in contact with since being kicked out show up to support them.

Even if we feel alone, it is always guaranteed that we will find people who understand us the moment we open up and allow ourselves to be our most authentic selves.

I Wish You All the Best reminds us that there are billions of people in the world, but we are all uniquely ourselves. So, celebrate who we are instead of worrying about who we are not.

Also, we could all use a bit of scream therapy from time to time.

 

I Wish You All the Best is now streaming on Prime Video.

 

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