Arts & Entertainment
Maybe Someday, a melancholic non-binary road trip film
Jay on a rock
The quietly composed film Maybe Someday follows Jay, a photographer recently separated from her wife, on a journey away from her old life and towards a new and unmapped path in Los Angeles. On the way, she visits a high school friend, once (and perhaps still) a BFF, and a divorced mother Jess.
In a sense, Maybe Someday is Jay’s road trip tale, travelling somewhere else in her own melancholy mind. Bereft and nearly expressionless, she hesitantly texts her ex (on a flip-phone), sending and receiving fairly meaningless messages that tether her to an obviously defunct relationship. With Jess, she has a halfway safe haven, geographically and metaphorically, to her destination.
Tommy and Jay in drag.
Through flashbacks, younger versions of Jay and Jess are shown as quintessential teenage girls in the throes of a passionately platonic friendship, often described as a training ground for later adult romances. Different here for Jay, because for her, it’s not a rehearsal.
Meanwhile, Jay and flailing cynic/comedian Tom team up, first as colleagues and then as pals, giggling at ideas such as breast-milk moisturizers, mortifying poor Jess, who is navigating her own way in a world she never expected to captain.
Altogether, Maybe Someday is a touching film, sometimes uneven and awkward, but as in the portrayals it reflects, people at all ages blossom, one way or another.
★★★ ½
Maybe Someday has its world premiere at Cinequest’s virtual film festival Cinejoy running until April 17.
