Bandslam is a film about a high school kid named Will (Gaelan Connell) who’s entire life is about music but has no one to share that passion with.  This all changes when he moves to New Jersey and his new high school is crazy about this competition called “Band Slam”, a battle of the bands where the winner receives a record deal.  He winds up managing the new band of one of the coolest girls in the school (Aly Michalka) while falling for another girl (Vanessa Hudgens) with hidden musical talents of her own.

The big problem with this film is firmly in it’s marketing.  I barely payed any attention when this was released in August.  I couldn’t care less.  It looked like a High School Musical knock-off and even featured one of the stars of HSM.  As a 26 year old I could care less about that kind of stuff.  So I wrote this off, as did lots of other people because this made no money, despite Vanessa Hudgens and Aly Michalka who through the internet I’ve learned is in a somewhat popular band Aly & AJ.  However bored on a Friday night with nothing better to do I checked it out and was pleasantly surprised.

First of all the movie starts off with a David Bowie track, and the lead Will writing a letter to David Bowie.  All the narration of the film is handled through this method of letters to Bowie and I think it’s a brilliant way to incorporate the narration into the film itself, rather than being disconnected.  Next you’ve got this kid talking about The Velvet Underground.  This is a movie about rock music that actually knows it’s stuff.  It’s very much aimed at a younger audience, I’d say young teenagers or tweens, but it takes the music seriously and isn’t about nonsense Disney-fied pop for the most part.

Alyson (Aly) Michalka as Charlotte

The other thing I loved was that the film featured girls as serious musicians without making any deal out of them being girls.  This is something great for the audience this film is aimed at. Besides the general message of the wonderfulness that is great rock & roll.  Besides the letters to Bowie (and a cameo by the great one himself) there’s a scene where Will and Sa5m (Hudgens) break into the now closed CBGB’s and Will explains the history of the place and many of the great bands that played there.  If this makes even one kid go out and check out someone like Patti Smith or Bad Brains then this film is successful in my eyes.

There’s an interesting dynamic here as well with two love interests for Will.  Charlotte is the more experienced, older girl (who in a great scene teaches him how to kiss) and Sa5m (the 5 is silent, and yes that’s the stupidest name ever, and no they never explain why that’s her name) is the cute, mysterious girl his age.  Never are the two girls really pitted against each other, and even though Will obviously has feelings for hot blonde Charlotte, she sees him as a friend and treats him as such.  The whole situation is handled really well.

The acting is so-so.  The only real wonderful performance is from Lisa Kudrow as Will’s mom, although both Connell and Michalka have their moments.  Also the movie is still pretty mainstream and mostly predictable.  And this is a movie for teens. It’s got flaws, it’s by no means a work of brilliant artistic merit, but it is a decent watch. The real special thing is the respect for the music and the history lessons imparted here.  Also it should be said that Todd Graff did do an excellent directorial job and this is actually a worthy followup to his last film the great Camp.

I’d recommend this movie to anyone around that young teen/tween age.  If you have one somewhere in your life, why not pick this up for them?  I guarantee they’ll like it if they have even the slightest musical inclination.  Unfortunately I couldn’t find when this is coming out on DVD.

For now check out the soundtrack on iTunes:

Or buy a CD version on Amazon: