A musical slam dunk (Bandslam (DVD))

Member Name: Ailran

Product:	Bandslam (DVD)
Date:	25/08/09 (110 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Great music, acting, story and direction

Disadvantages: Only if you dont like music or teen movies

After the money making machine that is High School Musical surpassed everyone's expectations it should come as no surprise that movie makers spotted a trend to jump onto. Jonas Brothers and Hannah Montana the movie both appearing on the big screens trying to exploit the moment while it still exists.

The latest movie to do the same thing is Bandslam, the story of a music competition in New York State where the winning high school band gets a recording contract and $10,000, or at least that is what the story will be perceived to be about.
Unlike other movies in this genre, ok mainly the HSM ones, Bandslam is more of a high school movie with some music thrown in rather than an actual musical.

Will Burton (Gaelan Connell) is a nerd who loves music. When he moves across country to a new school in Lodi, New York he imagines that he will be able to reinvent himself and actually survive his school experience without being continually picked upon.
He soon finds himself being paired up for a class project with the quiet, always reading, Sa5m (the 5 is silent!) played by High School Musical alumni Vanessa Hudgens. They are both different souls from the regular school guys and they seem to revel in their differences and hit it off pretty much straight away.

Will soon meets up with a pretty senior, Charlotte (Aly Michalka) who ropes him into helping with an after school crèche. Their friendship soon uncovers both their loves for music, music of the beaten track or older than they are (Velvet Underground being their first connection).
As soon as Charlotte realises the extent of knowledge that Will possesses in regards to music she introduces him to her band, a couple of guitarists and herself, and asks him for advice in improving their chances of getting into, and winning Bandslam.

Bandslam is, very surprisingly, a thoroughly enjoyable movie. The trailer made it look ok but it is so not the movie you think you will be seeing from it. It so overwhelmed my expectations that I would go as far as to say that this is probably the best movie based around high school life since Mean Girls, yes it is that enjoyable.
The reason for this is that the makers have made sure to create a bunch of great characters, have managed to fashion a good little story and, most importantly, have let the music be part of the story rather than something that stands out from it. It is an integral part of the plot rather than suddenly just happening for no apparent reason. The music flows out of the storyline rather than being injected into it forcibly.

Will is a very likeable lead character, an all around nice guy that you warm to very quickly. His relationship with his mother (Lisa Kudrow) is very realistic, something that rings true about a lot of the movie. There is a very low key style to Gaelean's acting that would be more suited to an indie comedy like Juno, but is used by the director to heighten the differences between Will and the other students.
Even when it comes to the two main females in the movie (Sa5m and Charlotte) you can actually believe that they would be seen with the odd new guy in school, unlike similar relationships in similar films. There is a cleverness to the direction that allows you to see how different Will is, but also how alike he is to most kids really.

Both the girls, Vanessa and Aly, are also very good, particularly Aly (though she does have a much more active role to play. Hudgens is better than I would have imagined, especially when you consider how different this role is to her High School Musical one.

Keeping with the intention of being just a little different from most high school type movies that music is a departure from what you would expect to hear. No out and out poppy stuff. The music hear has pop overtones but with a harder edge, more akin to modern day power pop. It may be family friendly power pop but to hear music with some power chords behind the melodies makes a nice change. I loved most of the music in the film and the Bandslam contestants all come across as very talented, if you love good power pop style music then Bandslam is full of it.

For me personally Bandslam was a perfect synthesis of high school comedy and intelligent musical with a dash of indie style comedy and characters blended in.
Cleverly made, written, directed and acted Bandslam turned out to be a real surprise package that had my foot tapping, my mouth upturned in a smile and even made me laugh on more than one occasion. I would happily say that this is one of the most outright ENJOYABLE movies I have seen this year... and I can tell you that I am as surprised to being saying that as you are no doubt to read me saying it.

The big shame is that it has been so badly promoted. The aim of the trailer, title and poster seems to be to grab the High School Musical tweens by concentrating on the music side of the film rather than the much better, and more prominent, relationship side. The title is the worst example of this, Bandslam is the impetus for the story but it really isn't the focus. The title makes you think that it is though, supposedly it was going to be called Will, which would at least have encouraged more people to see it, rather than being put off by the HSM style Bandslam. They have marketed this film so wrong that people above tween age will almost certainly just ignore the film and that is such a shame as it really does deserve many more viewers then it will get.

Summary: A great high school musical