Bandslam

Review by Anthony Morris

Movies are all about wish fulfilment. 

So what does it say about Bandslam that (in a story full of characters who are pretty darn good at rocking out in a band) our hero is a music geek whose big ambition is just to manage their band? 

But instead of coming off as lame or wimpy, somehow Will Burton (Gaelan Connell) manages to end up as an "against the odds" hero a la John Cusack in pretty much every movie he made in the 1980s.

He is too smart for his own good and is possessed with a geeky charm, yet he somehow manages to make this film's wish-fulfilment "two girls for every boy" love triangle almost seem plausible. 

After being the biggest music geek at a high school where everyone hated him, Will lucks out when his mum (Lisa Kudrow) gets a new job across the country and he transfers to a new school where he can start afresh... as a music geek. 

His new school is somehow totally obsessed (as in, "winning football team" level obsessed) with this school band competition called Bandslam.

But as the school's number one entrant is a painful sub-sub-sub-moron-fist-pumping act, Will has zero interest. 

Until, of course, a super-hot musician / former cheerleader (Aly Michalka) ropes him in to help her even lamer (but with more potential) band rock out. 

For a movie that looks like it should be just a band-based version of all those "inspirational" dance movies, Bandslam turns out to be both pretty funny and surprisingly thoughtful about the power of music to give a life meaning. 

Not to mention it features perhaps the best "dork gets on stage in front of cool crowd who start to taunt him but he somehow turns it around so they love him" scene in human history. 

That might not sound like much, but in this kind of film, getting that moment right counts for a lot.

3.5 out of 5

Bandslam
Australian release: 13th August, 2009
Official Site: Bandslam
Cast: Vanessa Hudgens, Gaelan Connell, Alyson Michalka, Lisa Kudrow
Director: Todd Graff