Movie Primer: Bandslam

This is a short primer for the teen rock comedy Bandslam. This film will have its opening gig on July 14th 2009. The trailer for this film can be found at http://www.apple.com/trailers/summit/bandslam/hd/

The Plot: Will is your typical high school misfit who struggles to have any friends. That is before he meets up with another misfit Sa5m (the 5 is silent or so the movie tells us), who is entirely to cute to be a high school outcast, and starts to manage a teen rock band that is fronted by a jilted ex-cheerleader who is trying to beat her ex-boyfriend in an upcoming battle of the bands.

Star Power: Unless you watch Disney Television most of these kids are not going to be very familiar. The biggest young star in the movie is Vanessa Hudgens (of the High school Musical movies). Lisa Kudrow is in the movie as well play dorky Will's mother.

Behind the Screen: The director Todd Graff is still a fairly recent talent. He has written a few screenplays but his only other major film that he directed was the music filled teen romp Camp. That movie was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance . Todd also wrote this musical infused teen comedy.

What to expect: On the surface it's hard to see what sets this movie apart from a whole lot of other movies made for teens. You have misfits and you have cool kids, and in the end you're pretty sure the misfits are going to succeed. So in the case of this movie, they are going to rock out and most likely discover that they are pretty cool in their own special way. This is fairly important lesson to learn and on occasion movies like this end up having a whole lot more heart than you expected. If you're a grown up who grew up on rock and roll you might want to leave this movie for your kids, but who knows it might have a surprising grove that you end up digging in the end.

www.imdb.com
www.apple.com/trailers