College Rock Stars

I didn't exactly choose to see this movie, it runs on a 24 hour movie channel on free to air. However, despite my cynical expectations I was pleasantly surprised. This film manages (just) to rise above the usual high school coming of age, misfit boy meets unlikely popular girl cliches not by directly avoiding them, but by both embracing them with sardonic humour, and unexpected twists. There is just the right mix of expected themes and tropes, yet the performances of the leads ( especially Hudgens) certainly make this a better than average coming of age teen angst drama. There are plenty of eye-rolling and cringe-worthy moments, but these are rarely lengthy. I invite the viewer to suspend cynicism ( at least a little ) and allow the diverse soundtrack to take one through the story, the closing sequence is remarkable. This is certainly not a lollipops and rainbows Disney trite offering- it has some very authentic dark moments which are not simply swept away by inane Pollyanna platitudes. Go on, give it a go.

If bad marketing can torpedo a film's chances at the box office, then Bandslam is one such unfortunate victim to fall prey to shoddy promotional efforts, where its High School Musical, kiddy-like trailer would have put off the non-Disney fans, and unfairly slapped on a juvenile perception on this film that had so much of a mature aspect and indie-spirit going for it, from its sensitively crafted characters to its eclectic choice of songs that just did wonders.

The gist of the film centers on its protagonist Will Burton (Gaelan Connell), who is the new kid in town, moving with his single mom Karen (Lisa Kudrow) to a new town to try and start things afresh. He broods a lot, and narrates his letter of the day to his idol David Bowie. Priding himself as a musical encyclopedia of sorts, his human studies classes will see him paired up with goth chick Sa5m (the 5 is silent), played by HSM alumni and Efron-less Vanessa Hudgens, and in his after-school hours, his good Samaritan turn and easy going nature sees him making friends with senior year Charlotte (Alyson Michalka). Not bad for a new kid actually to have been taken notice of by some of the hottest chicks in school.

Then there's Bandslam the competition, where Charlotte ropes Will in to be their manager, and he has to assemble a rag tag team of musicians, and basically be pushed to the forefront of making things happen, from recruitment, to song selection, demo tapes, website, the whole works. From a nobody before to having his school life all planned out for him, this of course leads to plenty of zero to hero moments that you would be familiar with especially if you're a fan of such genre from the Japanese. But director Todd Graff had injected the film with enough maturity to avoid being just another clone, and as such made this highly enjoyable from the get go.

But the strength of this movie laid in its portrayal of teenage relationships, be it parental where one's teenage life starts to fill up, leaving out one's parents who feel that you're abandoning them for more happening peers, or the platonic, which is often the catalyst for jealousy and misunderstandings. Then there's the romantic angle which is typically saccharine sweet, if not for well placed humour to break things up a little bit. Being a film primarily about contemporary teenagers who grapple with perennial issues like confidence, believing in oneself, identity crisis and the sense of belonging, this growing up tale also had enough backstory built into it that just led to a richer experience, without having the need to show everything explicitly.

However the film played down the typical stereotypes that come to plague the teenage movies, such as the blonde who has to be Ms Popular – in fact she's Ms Quirky here – or that Goth Chick who has to be Ms Emo. On the contrary, it shattered some of the stereotypes through excellent characterization that makes you look beyond their physical make up and come to understand the common concerns that you would have identified with (given old blokes like me who are way past the teenage years). The great looking leads (well, some geeks here are pleasing to the eye at least) also helped, and what more having real life singers and performers like Michalka, Hudgens and the other performing bands helped to lend some authenticity to the film's musical elements too. As the main, relativey unknown lead, Gaelan Connell held the ground firmly, and while his character had the weight-of-the- world-on-his-shoulders look, Connell was charismatic and likable to have made you want to root for him and his cause, without bringing in any irritation of smugness.

If you subscribe to the mantra of no music no life, then Bandslam is your film. Being a sucker for zero to hero type stories that I've weaned on from Japan, this film had those formulaic elements done right, and more, with its cast anchoring a solid emotional core and a finale that you'll find hard pressed not to groove to. Forget its marketing people, otherwise you'll be unfairly missing out on what I would shortlist for my end of the year top 10 list. Definitely highly recommended, and watch out for that surprise at the end which just summed the theme of hope in the film really nicely!

This high school musical movie actually contains one of HSM's stars, Vanessa Hudgens, plus Lisa Kudrow as the single mother of the protag, Will Burton (Gaelen Connell), who is delighted when his mom finds a way to take them to live in a new place, Lodi, New Jersey. He was more then ready for a change. In one of the chatty emails to David Bowie that provide the narration, he calls his old high school "Guantanamo with lunch breaks." What happens at the new school? Will gets lucky. Real lucky. He gets paired off with Vanessa Hudgens in a class, and they become a couple. A former Alpha Female called Charlotte (junior prom queen, head cheerleader), played by Alyson Michalka, finds out Will has an encyclopedic musical knowledge and recruits him to meld her garage band into one that can beat the high school's reigning Glory Dogs and win the tri-state (NY, NY, CN) "bandslam." One obvious motive is that she wants to beat the Glory Dogs to trounce its lead singer, Ben Wheatly (Scott Porter), because he is her snotty former boyfriend. Aside from Ben, a generic model of testosterone overconfidence, Graff (mostly) steers clear of high school stereotypes.

This sets up a trajectory for the film that's like an older kids' version of Richard Linklater's 'School of Rock,' but Gaelen Connell is no Jack Black and the pathway to the big event isn't as cute -- or as climactic. That was one of Black's triumphs, but on the other hand Connell himself is way cuter than Jack Black, whose closest lookalike is the base guitarist, a Flea imitator who calls himself Bug (Charlie Saxton). Resembling young Tom Hanks or maybe John Cusack, with a weak chin, a sweet little smile, a mini Afro and a wrinkled brow, you can almost believe Connell's Will might actually be in the constant company of the school's hottest chicks. Not quite. He's not as articulate and soulful as Cusack, and not as edgey and dark as Christian Slater was in 'Heathers' or 'Pump Up the Volume.' But then Hudgens isn't the shiny, prefab girlfriend of Zac Efron this time. Au contraire. She gets to be the dark one. She calls herself Sa5m ("the 5 is silent"), wears dark clothes, and she reads all the time, even when Will's trying to kiss her.

When you think of Eighties youth classics like those two Slater was in, Bandslam looks generic. We'll just never relive that great Eighties youth movie moment or see the likes of the late, great John Hughes again. But when you compare Bandslam to 'High School Musical,' you realize this is not the kind of movie that you pan. It deserves encouragement. The screenplay by Graff and Josh A. Cagan is packed with inessential cuteness and never takes its dark moments seriously enough -- even though it pushes them too hard. The music Will leads the band into is bland -- and loud. There's none of the joy in rock frenzy that Jack Black comically evokes. Maybe Wil's expertise -- his celebratory (and still pretty touching) visit to the ruins of CGMG, where punk began -- may seem more a reflection of the 50ish director than a teenager. But none of that matters enough to maul this movie, unless you're desperate to show how musically hip you are. The cast is just too appealing and the action is just too much fun to write them off.

When Will reshapes the band by adding brass and an Asian girl classical keyboardist (Lisa Chung) and an elphin-spouting nerdy girl cellist (Elvy Yost) and a boy drummer called Basher (Ryan Donowho) whose majors are machine shop and anger management, if feels like he's bringing something to life (however silly the music), and Jack Black was just a puppet master. It's also good that Kudrow really seems like a single mom trying not to get too much in the way of her son's new life but still protective and sometimes forgetting herself and making him a friend, or as he says "doing that thing of talking to me like I'm Oprah." Sometimes Todd Graff's perky cuteness seems pretty real. Connell has been compared to a Michael Cera "without the sweetness." "Thank you Shia LaBeouf and Michael Cera" is something Connell has actually said, "for paving the way for someone like me to be the leading guy in a movie." But Connell is Connell. LaBeouf would be a lead weight here, and Cera would swamp the movie with his indie quirkiness. The best thing about Connell is he's not a scene stealer: he's a catalyst. He makes this movie built around him an ensemble picture, and everybody looks pretty good.

I rate it an 8 only because for a PG movie kids younger than 12 might not get what the movie is about; though they might just think it's about singing. Which is not bad because the movie has excellent music selection, flows with scene transition very well. Teenagers will love this movie for sure; but parents will be pleasantly surprise. The dialogs are well written - witty and not contrive. Each characters and their dynamic are well developed and relatable. You laugh; you cry, but at the end you leave the theater with a smile on your face, forgetting that you have just spent almost 2 hrs in a theater. All actors were on point in playing their characters. Great casting. This is the sleeper movie of the summer.

I am surprised of how much I enjoyed this movie.

It was clever. You know how teen movies – especially ones involving kids competing against each other in school related events – tend to be highly predictable? Well, this movie had real unpredictable moments… I mean real ones. Like when Will is upstage and everyone is chanting his name (this is not a spoiler, don't worry)… I didn't know what was going to happen until it happened. I know this might sound kind of lame, it's only a detail but the fact that they managed to surprise me with it was really something.

And, the mirror scene. How many people wish they had thought of this for show and tell? And the kissing scene! HAHAHAHAHAHA. With the hat and the hair…. God that was funny. I'm still laughing just thinking about it! The only reason I'm giving it a 9 is because one small detail bothered me. How in the world did they come up with the song at the end? It was a little far-fetched which kind of clashed with the rest of the movie because the rest made sense… if you've seen the movie, you'll know what I mean.

And I cried! Twice! One time because I was touched and the other time because I was sad...

So, this is a FAMILY movie that is CLEVER, FUNNY, SAD, TOUCHING. I highly recommend this if you're hanging out with your younger sibling or if you are babysitting a 12 year old (not younger than 12 though because they might not get all the jokes...) They will LOVE it and so will you!