Coda’s ongoing coverage of the 2021 Phoenix Film Festival & International Horror Sci-Fi Film Festival. I'll be using these posts to recap the films I've experienced as part of these festivals.
TEENAGE BADASS – Directed by Grant McCord
This
one has a lot going for it. In a lot of ways, it feels like a love letter to
the area. It’s written, produced and directed by one of its ensemble stars, Grant
McCord and the film’s music was written by Ultra. You can feel the locality
here. As someone that’s spent the past four decades in this Valley, I loved
things like Welcome Diner and Zia Records. They play their first set at The
Rebel Lounge. When I was younger, it was called The Mason Jar but it’s no less
iconic today. One of the characters is perpetually wearing a Dirty Drummer
t-shirt. My uncle used to take me there for chicken wings about thirty years
ago. Even Jimmy Eats World’s Jimmy Atkins’s cameo feels more like scenery than
anything else. To be clear, I was here for all of this. As a cinefile that grew
up in an area that hasn’t always been that friendly to its local art scene, it
was wonderful to see a legit feature film that expressed some of the love I’ve
always felt for my home. From my experience, this story almost perfectly
epitomized the local rock band scene. Of course, I’ve never heard of an
overabundance of drummers in this scene. I think the it’s more typical to find
about a 4 to 1 ratio of Tempe bands to Tempe drummers.
All
of this is great, but the real star of the film is the screenplay. Co-written
by McCord and Matthew Dho, the jokes hit on every beat. The audience I was with
was laughing out loud and so was I. This was the film’s most successful aspect
and I hope to get the opportunity to revisit it.
TEENAGE BADASS is
available for digital purchase and rental from Freestyle Digital Media.
I
know nothing of the opera. Honestly, it’s an art form that will likely never
interest me. I came here to see the progression of Danielle Macdonald’s career.
I’ve been interested in her since 2017’s PATTI CAKES in which she plays an
aspiring New Jersey rapper, an art form that I can fully support. Her performance
here was good, maybe great, but it’s hard to critique considering what she was
working with. At times, throughout the second act, it seemed as though the film
was working its way towards fully developed and interesting characters. But it
ultimately fell short, even with Millie. Other than, she loves opera, I never
got a sense of why she was so driven to change her life. The same issue arises,
even more apparently with the supporting characters.
The
scenery of the film was shot beautifully, although with that setting, I’m not
sure how it wouldn’t have. And I found most of the dialogue to be well written.
But for a romantic comedy, it was very short on actual laughs. I would also add
that I found it to be quite unfortunate that the screenplay felt it necessary
to revert back to some old and predictable rom-com tropes that didn’t seem to
be supported at all by the characters we had been spending this time with. I
found this to be cheap and very disappointing.
Sometimes
a movie can appeal to a niche audience when it takes place in a world of a
certain subject matter. I don’t know, maybe the opera-heads will love this one.
It just wasn’t for me.
FALLING FOR FIGARO opens
wide, Friday, October 1st
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