REVIEW: ‘Bandslam’

When I go to movies that are built outside my target demographic – like the Disney film “G-Force” – when writing my review I have to keep reminding myself: “This movie was not made for you. This movie was not made for you.” I was fearing the same conversation with myself when I went to watch “Bandslam.” I could not have been more wrong, or more pleasantly surprised.

“Bandslam” has a lot of the coming-of-age trappings that a lot of teen-oriented movies have: a new kid in town who doesn’t really fit in finds a way to make his mark, en route to getting the girl and learning something about himself in the process. We’ve seen all that before, sure. What writer / director Todd Graff has done with “Bandslam,” and few other writers of similar films dare to do, is treat his characters with respect.

The “quirky loner” kid, Will Burton (played with aplomb by Gaelan Connell) loves music – so much so that he writes daily to his hero, David Bowie. That love of music permeates the whole film, and it doesn’t spoon-feed the standard pop pablum into the fabric of it, but weaves lessons in where ska comes from, and why CBGB was important.

It may have a few unrealistic conceits at its core, such as an amazingly competent band quickly assembled to compete in the yearly Bandslam competition – which is “Texas high school football big,” according to Vanessa Hudgens’ character, Sa5m (“the 5 is silent”). In the heyday of film musicals, such conceits are par for the course, and it’s not distracting at all. In fact, the elements of film musicals serve the movie well, where you know that the band that Burton assembles will be damned good in short order, and the guy who leads the odds-on favorite to win Bandslam is a dashing lout.

Also, each of the three leads are hiding their own bits of pain, and realistic bits at that, such as the former cheerleader who gave up her popularity (Alyson Michalka) while dealing with her father’s debilitating illness. She takes refuge with her rebuilt band, and gets Will to “manage” the band – through cajoling and emotional blackmail – when she figures out he knows more about music than most of her classmates combined. There’s also a young love story included, but it doesn’t unfold nearly the way you would think, and takes more than a few unconventional turns.

No, “Bandslam” wasn’t made for me. It was made for young adults who don’t want their pop culture, or their onscreen role models, in neat little packages. “Bandslam” is a movie that has its heart firmly in the right place, and that’s a rare enough achievement from mainstream Hollywood.

“Bandslam” opens nationwide on Friday, August 14.