Done a major disservice by its cutesie title, Todd Graff’s Bandslam delivers more than the high school battle-of-the-bands plotline suggests it would. Though occasionally dipping into a Footloose-meets-The Karate Kid mindset, this sly charmer will surprise a lot of the grown-ups who will be dragged along by a tween relative, primed to see Vanessa Hudgens in her first non-High School Musical outing.
Multi-hyphenate Graff has impressed with most of his screen work, both in front of the camera (James Cameron’s The Abyss, 1989) and as a writer/director. It was the depth and understanding of teen talent and pubescent anxiety that he captured in his utterly lovable, feel-good feature Camp (2003) that led him to Bandslam, a similar tale of the outsider finding kindred artistic spirits and forming relationships that transcend the usual criteria of teenage movie-bonding – sex, partying....sex again....and so on.
His film is the story of Will Burton (Gaelen Connell), who is uprooted from his tormented existence in Cincinnatti by his struggling mum (Lisa Kudrow) and transported to Martin Van Buren High, a particularly arts-friendly secondary school in New Jersey. There, he bonds with Sa5m (a downbeat Vanessa Hudgens, playing against type as a troubled ex-stutterer with a silent '5’ in her name) and Charlotte (Alyson Michalka), a beautiful cheerleader-type. She also harbours a secret that has caused her to refocus her life – firstly as the school’s pre-teen class supervisor and secondly as front person for a going-nowhere coverband.
Will is obsessed with classic rock and pop – the film’s plot turns on specific references to The Velvet Underground, The Who, U2, The Sex Pistols, Patti Smith, Bruce Springsteen and Red Hot Chilli Peppers. Most importantly, Graff and his leading character idolise David Bowie, in whom Will confides via emails throughout the film, despite getting no reply from The Thin White Duke (his wordless cameo is priceless). It is this knowledge of the golden age of pop music that gets Will a gig as Charlotte’s band manager and mouthpiece as they decide to take on other upstate New York high-school musical groups in the annual Bandslam contest.
Locals are passionate about the stars of the show and Will, Charlotte and Sa5m all see it as way to fulfil their ambitions and cleanse their young souls of the burdens they carry.
It is impossible not to draw comparisons between Bandslam and some of the late John Hughes’ most loved films – The Breakfast Club and, more specifically, Pretty in Pink. In essence, Will is Molly Ringwald’s Pretty in Pink character, Sam – struggling to cope with a depressed parent, obsessed with the music of yore, caught between the longings of two very different but equally compelling love interests. And just as Hughes’ mastery used the most simplest of teen movie constructs to tell a universally-moving story, so does Graff embrace the deeper conflicts impacting the most formative years of his characters’ lives. It will be no surprise at all to find this film a staple at slumber parties and rainy Saturday afternoon get-togethers for teenagers and their nostalgic parents over the next 20-odd years.
Lead actor Gaelen Connell is a not an immediately engaging presence, but as the source of Will’s social awkwardness is slowly revealed, one comes to appreciate just how good a performance he delivers; his scenes with Kudrow show a great understanding of the single parent/teenager relationship. As Charlotte, Michalka is instantly engaging – with a look not unlike Australia’s own Portia De Rossi, she is beguiling but not aggressively sexual and commands her onscreen moments beautifully. She is a real find. Support characters, especially Charlien Saxton as 'Bug’, the bands bassist and Ryan Donowho as Basher, the drummer suffering anger-management issues, all deliver pitch-perfect characterisations with the limited screen time they have.
It is disappointing that the film’s distributor has employed 'Dolly’ magazine-type marketing to sell Bandslam – pretty people in cool clothes cradling guitars and smiling a lot, as if it was a big screen version of American Idol. They are sadly underestimating the dramatic gravitas of Graff’s movie and the intelligence of the target audience.
Sure, feel-good teenage movie clichés abound in Bandslam, but clichés become clichés because they never fail to work when employed with skill and precision. And Todd Graff and his young cast get the execution very, very right.
