Jasmine J. Johnson adds another string to her exceptionally talented bow with her dramedy Cuming Out. A film about acceptance and self-discovery in a complicated world, this short has a great deal of charm that wins you over immediately.

Nervous Kennedy (Alycia Pascual-Pena) is on a date with the over-confident playboy Kofi (Camron Jones) and plans to use him as a one-night stand. Prepped with condoms and the morning-after pill, she is ready. Except their night takes a very unexpected turn that ends up changing them both for vastly different reasons.

The fear of coming out to your friends and family is such a devastatingly real worry for people that sometimes these conflicted people decide that seeking something close to normalcy in a hetero relationship is the only true recourse. In Cuming Out, this is where we find Kennedy, believing that if she can get one night with a guy, that will “fix” her lesbianism and then she can live a normal life without being afraid of judgment. Yet, life is never that easy, and even if she is in fact more likely to be bisexual, the sexual allure women will have in her isn’t something that can just be switched off.

The inner turmoil that Alycia Pascual-Pena portrays within Kennedy throughout Cuming Out is tremendous. You never fully believe she is committed to her actions and that conflict is omnipresent until she allows her defences to drop and be honest with Kofi. Once that happens, it feels like we get a brand new character, but in a wholly believable way.

You believe that this character is discovering her sexual wants and needs through her conversation and experience with Kofi. Once she begins to accept herself, accepting that her queerness is there and, importantly, doesn’t have to disappear because of what others think, it then allows Kennedy to be who she truly is. That believability is down to Johnson’s writing and Pascual-Pena’s performance.

Like her writing in her excellent 2024 short film Inner Demons, there is a great deal of intelligence here. What could easily be a story solely focused on Kennedy’s struggles with her sexuality and finding her place in a world where she believes it is simply easier to be heterosexual, we instead get two interesting stories.

Kofi’s woes of premature ejaculation are not something that is brought up on screen too often, and they are usually used for a cheap laugh. While there are still a few giggles to be had, they are wonderfully coupled with insecurities and acceptance to allow Kofi to be so much more than a one-note character. Part of this is also thanks to Camron Jones, who brings an effortless, comedic style to his performance in Cuming Out. At the same time, keeping that sadness ever-present to show us how Kofi is acting the confident lad, when really he is as lost as Kennedy.

The fantastic story and character development within just 18 minutes is wonderful to watch. You believe these two will be joined at the hip after this night, something neither of them could have seen coming. Cuming Out is a great watch that keeps the laughs rolling right up to the end, particularly in the ice cream scene. Yet the way Johnson keeps her story focused on the insecurities forces the audience to keep watching and leaves us well entertained.

★★★★

Support Us

I am but a small website in this big wide world. As much as I would love to make this website a big and wonderful entity. That would bring in more costs. So, for now, all I hope is to make Upcoming On Screen self-sufficient. Well, enough to make any website fees less of a worry for me in the future. You can support the website below…

Patreon

You can support us in a variety of ways (other than that wonderful word of mouth) and those lovely follows. If you are so inclined to help us out then you can support us via Patreon, find our link here!. We don’t want to ask you much, so for now, we have limited our tiers to £1.50 and £3.50. These will, of course, grow the more we plan to do here at Upcoming On Screen.

Social Media

You can also support us via Twitter and Facebook Instagram and Blue Sky! by giving us a follow and a like. Every single one helps!

Thanks for reading; every view helps us out more than you would think (we have fragile egos). Until next time.