After more than a decade as a film critic it is very rare that a movie can sneak up on me. I am generally well informed and aware of most aspects of a movie before I see it. I keep an open mind but it would be nearly impossible not to have expectations of a movie based on the trailer, the commercials, the stars and the director.
That is certainly the case with the teen comedy “Bandslam.” The film stars an unknown young man and two Disney channel divas, one of whom is best known for the vanilla “High School Musical” franchise. “Bandslam” comes from Summit Entertainment, the company behind the marketing phenomenon that is “Twilight” and “Walden Media,” the church led movie company behind such forgettable fair as “Hoot” and “Because of Winn Dixie.”
Expectations were very, very low for “Bandslam.” Then I actually saw it and my expectations were trumped by a smile that refused to leave my face. “Bandslam” is a musically literate, adroit teen comedy that packs a number of surprising and honestly moving moments in the midst of some typical High School movie plotting. The film stars Gaelan Connell as Will Burton, a terminal outcast who spends his free time soaked in musical arcana. He writes daily missives to his hero David Bowie and longs for the day he can escape Cincinnati where his father has brought the family an infamy Will cannot escape. Will finally gets out of Ohio when his mom (Lisa Kudrow) tells him they are moving to New Jersey. At first, things aren't that different; Will is still an outcast, but things pick up when Charlotte (Aly Mischalka) randomly chooses Will to be her friend. Charlotte is a former cheerleader turned rocker chick who picks up stray outcasts to be her friends and band mates.
She and Will bond over music but she makes clear she has no interest in him romantically. The musical bond leads to Will becoming the manager of Charlotte's band, which in the near future will play “Bandslam” and go head to head for a record contract with Charlotte's ex-boyfriend (Scott Porter) and his band The Glorydogs.
The band is so-so but Will sees potential and begins to round out the sound with a few more outcasts, including a strange cello player and an Asian exchange student with a talent for piano. Meanwhile, Will begins a flirtation with Sa5m; the 5 is silent. Sa5m has a secret past as a musician but the bond between her and Will is more romantic than musical.
Directed by Todd Graf, whose “Camp” was another wonderful movie about musical outsiders, “Bandslam” is a musically literate teen flick held together by a lead performance by Gaelan Connell that evokes a young John Cusack. No kidding, the kid is that good.
It's a movie of terrific musical taste that runs the gamut from indie rock to ska to The Velvet Underground and David Bowie who shows up late in the film as required by Will's quirk of regularly writing him letters. Graf does well to manage the musical tastes of his fictional teens keeping them smart without being too smart. The music played by the bands in “Bandslam” is purely the contemporary pop radio stuff you might expect of teens playing in a garage.
That touch of truthfulness gives depth to the movie as do the complicated, believable relationships between these terrific characters. I mentioned Connell as the film's center but he is matched well by Mischalka, an actress I was not familiar with before this film. I am told she is a star of some teen sitcom but wherever she came from she is on her way to big things.