The transitioning transgender man has a moment at the pharmacy. He’s finished up his purchase with a request for “Plan B,” the “morning after” birth control pills.

And the pharmacist is a bit confused, which the still-female Feña disarms with a flippant fib.

“I’m gay,” Feña says. He’s just being a good friend, buying this for somebody else. So he says.

“Before more careful, young man,” the unseen pharmacist scolds.

If there’s a moment that sums up the “confused” 2023 state of sexuality and most confused people’s response to it better than this single scene in “Mutt,” I haven’t seen it.

Writer-director Vuk Lungulov-Klotz packs a lot into his 87 minute primer on Being Transgender Now in mostly-tolerant New York City.

“Confused” comes up, and often. “It’s complicated” is trotted out a time or two. Or three. The phrase “a phase” turns up and is addressed, head-on at a personal if not a cultural, teens-trying-something-on-for-size level.

But any way you look at it, Feña, played by transgender actor Lio Mehiel, goes through a soap opera season’s worth of drama, trauma, romance and pain in this “single day in the life” character sketch.

Feña doesn’t go by Fernanda any more. The adjustment, like her transition to “him,” is ongoing.

Consider, he needs to borrow a car to pick up his semi-estranged Chilean dad at the airport. He’s still dealing with hassles at the bank as his boss keeps writing his birth name on his paychecks.

He may have a supportive group of friends and a sympathetic transgender roommate (Jari Jones). But today of all days, he sees his ex, John (Cole Dolman) in the city, and then in their favorite bar. Today of all days, old feelings and urges pop up.

Even though, as Feña’s kid sister Zoe (MiMi Ryder) notes, he’s had the “top” surgery (breast reduction), when “old feelings and urges pop up,” one sometimes has to have an awkward conversation with a pharmacist.

And “today of all days” is the day Feña’s 14 year-old sister has chosen to skip school, flee the “broken” and raging mother who kicked Feña out of the house, and that sister proceeds to carelessly make everything just a little worse.

But the kid’s hip enough to snap at the explanation Feña and every Feña out there feels the need to use with those who don’t “get it.”

“I’m still me.” As if saying that’s necessary.

But the kid and the ex-boyfriend and later the long-absent father (Alejandro Goic) serve a vital function in Lungulov-Klotz’s film. They’re the surrogates for the less hip, asking for clarification, explanation, asking to “see” the scars.

“Mutt” overreaches in the ways it folds all this drama into a single day. And maybe you can’t “have it both ways” in a movie on this touchiest of current hot-button subjects.

Feña is vocally adamant about being way past the point where anybody can use the word “phase” in his presence. But to the uninitiated, those struggling to walk a mile in “their” shoes, sleeping with a guy and having to go buy Plan B muddies the waters and fuzzies up that “phase” argument.

There’s a pause, and something like a raised-eyebrow from Feña when his mouthy sister insists she’s down with all this because “I have a trans friend.” Maybe Feña, like the casual viewer, wonders how anybody a 14 year-old would call a “friend” could be emotionally and intellectually prepared to realize that about themselves, or make that “choice.”

The best thing about “Mutt” is its implicit plea for “sit this one out” if you don’t know what the hell you’re talking about. And there’s also a plea for patience and sympathy for parents, family and friends wrestling with what appears to most to be a “new” thing, an utterly “modern” problem and concern, and for those actually going through this “confusion” and determined to wrestle it into something that resembles a stable, balanced and happy life.

Rating: TV-MA, sexual situations, smoking, profanity

Cast: Lio Mehiel, Cole Doman, MiMi Ryder, Jari Jones and
Alejandro Goic

Credits: Scripted and directed by Vuk Lungulov-Klotz. A Strand Releasing film on Netflix.

Running time: 1:27