Bandslam is the latest in a long line of music-themed, teenage, indie rom-coms that have become fashionable in American cinema in recent years. High School Musical is the most anodyne and mass-marketed example, while Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist would represent the quirkier and more intricate end of the spectrum.

By and large, as movies they are all pretty forgettable and deeply flawed – too dumb if like the former, too clever by half if like the latter, and all incredibly saccharin to the point of being indigestible.

What sets Bandslam apart is mainly the performances of the main cast, including a fine turn from Gaelan Connell in the role of Bowie-obsessed protagonist Will. In fact, it’s even refreshing to have an American teen film whose lead isn’t portrayed by Michael Cera or Zac Effron. Connell lacks the bumbling, mumbling monotone of the former and certainly the unrealistically handsome looks of the latter.

The evident musical ability of various members of the rest of the cast is perhaps the most impressive aspect, especially the two female leads Aly Michalka and Vanessa Hudgens who are so talented (and so gorgeous) that it’s practically impossible to find fault with either actress.

Having said this, the first half-hour is actually fairly cringeworthy and crawls by. There is a persistent sense, as in other American indie teen comedies, that these adolescents are way too smart, way too self aware, way too articulate, nowhere near self-conscious enough to reflect any sort of reality. Perhaps being subjected to thirty or forty minutes is the requisite amount of time it takes to properly engage the sense of disbelief, as after this time the fare improves markedly.

After wading through treacle at the beginning, to the point where you are frustratedly willing the film to get the hell on with it, the plot begins to pick up and bops along nicely. Nonetheless, writer/director Todd Graff probably should have snipped away at the opening a little, as there is a danger that people might become so dismayed by it that they will be in a less forgiving mood than I.

Insofar as that the cast are - with the exception of Lisa Kudrow as Will’s mother - either complete unknowns or, like Hudgens of High School Musical fame, primarily respected for their musical ability, Bandslam most closely resembles a romantic, American, teenage version of the Commitments. Perhaps better entitled Jimmy Rabbitte: The American Teenage Years.

Music being the cornerstone of the movie, it’s important to give a nod to the soundtrack. It’s pretty standard indie rock fare, although in fairness this in signposted right at the beginning when Will says, “the indie rock clique in my school was just me and one other guy who I refused to meet until he bathed and stopped smoothing his hair down with his hand”.

The style of the film isn’t so much comedy as it is warm-hearted drama. Think Freaks & Geeks only with slightly cooler kids (and, obviously, set in the present day rather than early 80’s). This isn’t laugh-a-minute stuff, like the movies the Ferrell-Stiller-Vaughan axis churn out on an alarmingly regular basis; here the results are more likely to be knowing smiles and self-effacing chuckles rather than throaty guffaws (although one moment did have this reviewer giggling hysterically, but even that was due to a cringe-inducing scenario that particularly touched a nerve with me).

Definitely worth a look, and better than most American teen indie comedies, but there is the possibility that it might rub you up the wrong way rather than tickle your funnybone.

- Sebastian Clare

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