Bandslam
This weekend if you wish to see a romantic comedy with lyrics to hum for the rest of the week, go for Bandslam. This American movie has a dash of all from romance, comedy to titillating music. A film about teenagers who all share the common passion and that is music.
The story clue for this movie is mostly in line with trilogy of Disney’s High School Musical, but the impact is not too strong as it failed to penetrate deep to provide any insight on the subject. Actually, the movie is a cliché with not much new angles to explore. Todd Graff was famous for Camp, his filmmaking debut but this time the feeling is strong that Bandslam will not be able to strike the right chords together to create a lingering tingling of music just because it’s a formulaic movie with not much wit and intelligence.
Will Burton is a self-effacing new kid who has this feeling of a loser and did not know much about his own talent and was mostly ignored by his schoolmates. There is the quiet girl Sa5m who writes her name with numbers and the blonde peppy Charloette. She has her own band and she is vibrant and enthusiastic to make a name for her band in the top slot. Will used to live with his single mother and in most times you will find Will Burton umbilically tied to his iPod. In no time, Charloette recognizes the talent of Will in vintage rock and asks him to manage her band. Soon like-minded people come together and in it you find the quiet girl Sa5m as well just because there was a hidden talent in her too. Will Burton, the geek soon felt the transformation within from no one in the school to someone in Charloette’s band. There are also shots of potential romance brewing up between Will and the 
quiet girl who write names in a queer manner.
To win in the contest of the film’s title confident Will Burton adds into the band several section and that includes a keyboardist and horn and string sections. He even goes forward to rename the band as I Can’t Go On I will Go On . However, what is lacking in the film is element of originality as watching Bandslam one will realize that all snippets are forced into to fill in the gaps of the movie. However, every kid in the movie showcased brilliant performance and had these young ones got a good material, they would have created something extraordinary.
There are scenes which explicitly relates to the behavior of this generation such as texting in mobile and posting videos in You Tube. There are shots unnecessarily fitted into the movie and one of it is Will Burton’s mother losing temper and pouring advice into the young ones.
Cinematographer Eric Steelberg did a good job to recreate the right ambience for romance, contest win and the humdrum of Manhattan Club with a brush of suburban air.
| Film | Bandslam |
|---|---|
| Cast | Aly Michalka as Charlotte Banks, Vanessa Hudgens as Sa5m, Gaelan Connell as Will Burton, Scott Porter as Ben Wheatly, Ryan Donowho as Basher Martin, Charlie Saxton as Bug, Lisa Kudrow as Karen Burton, Tim Jo as Omar, Elvy Yost as Irene Lerman (Cello) |
| Director | Todd Graff |
| Writer | Todd Graff, Josh A. Cagan |
| Producers | Elaine Goldsmith-Thomas, Ron Schmidt, Marisa Yeres |
| Rating | 3/5 |
Posted on Saturday, August 15th, 2009 at 10:31 pm