Teen Spirit Review

PG-13: Some suggestive content, and for teen drinking and smoking

Bleecker Street, LD Entertainment

1 Hr and 32 Minutes

Writer/Director: Max Minghella

Cast: Elle Fanning, Rebecca Hall, Millie Brady, Elizabeth Berrington, Viktorija Faith & Hannah Banks, Zlatko Burić

Release Date: April 12th (NY & LA) | April 19th (Nationwide)

Violet is a shy teenager who dreams of escaping her small town and pursuing her passion to sing. With the help of an unlikely mentor, she enters a local singing competition that will test her integrity, talent and ambition. Driven by a pop-fueled soundtrack, Teen Spirit is a visceral and stylish spin on the Cinderella story.

Throughout her years as an actress, Elle Fanning has proven time and time again how versatile she is in nearly every role she tackles. Even when the movie itself isn’t that good, she always delivers a spirited performance. With Teen Spirit, Fanning displays another level of raw talent and this time she SINGS! And I don’t mean the casual slight surprise when you learn that an actor/actress has a set of pipes (like Emma Watson), but the impressive shock when you learn that a performer has got some PIPES - and also, can speak Polish.   As Violet gets onstage at the local bar where she works and belts out “I Was a Fool”, you’re immediately surprised to realize that Elle Fanning can SING. Fanning is already multi-talented, but her speaking Polish and belting out covers of songs in her own voice is incredible.

Following Violet, a Polish girl who dreams of escaping her mundane provincial life, her only escape is music. What makes her stand out the most is her relatable personality. She is cautious, passionate, quiet and a bit overwhelmed by her entire experience, as most of us would be. First time writer/director Max Minghella takes an earnest approach to her character that makes her relatable and resonant where all Violet has is her voice and passion, but feels so much unsteadiness with each layer of achievement she accomplishes through this X-Factor-styled competition series.

Besides being the familiar dreamer in a fairytale, Violet has a ton of internal struggles mixed with anxieties, which makes her enticing enough to be the audience’s primary avatar. In our contemporary age where people are very anxious and self-aware, Violet is the kind of hero we deserve. As far as all these ASIB-like movies go, Violet is the most relatable character of them all.

With Teen Spirit being Max Minghella’s transition from actor to writer/director, he proves his talent more through his direction. The moments where the film shines the most are the musical sequences. Through his direction, Minghella plays around with a non-chronological presentation during the music sequences and they are powerful. Not only are they filmed so fluently with enough neon lighting and cinematic theatricality that makes Violet the center of attention, but it helps the audience resonate more with how Violet feels and how she expresses herself through her choice of songs. The songs chosen by Minghella are distinct to Violet’s personality and the sequences he creates whenever she’s in her zone are even more so. As montages and scenes in their own right, Minghella emphasizes on the intensity of reality competition as his scenes get into the meat of the off-camera work that goes into it.

With each sequence where Violet’s singing or feeling the intensity of the competition and expressing the true competitiveness that goes on behind the scenes, Minghella exhibits so much promise in directing features, specifically music videos. He shows the inner works of a reality competition and you’re along for the ride with Violet and feel the overwhelming pressure that she feels. It’s exhilarating enough to keep you bobbing your head and immersed into the story as you root for this girl to achieve her dream. I even love how a lot of the covers on the soundtrack have their own spin and don’t just feel like they’re straight from a jukebox. Take a listen to the soundtrack, specifically Elle’s “Lights” cover, and you’ll see what I mean.

Long after the introduction of Violet, Teen Spirit delivers on a lot of promises with the world Minghella sets his lead character in. You have a Polish girl who lives on an island and has a passive relationship with her mom… but once Violet enters the competition itself, the film abandons most splices of originality that would make it a standout. When Violet performs “Dancing on My Own” at her audition, part of the scene reveals why she resents her mom, who doesn’t really seem that bad or unsupportive. The the first act spends so much time establishing the distant relationship between them and it’s enticing, but then it shifts its focus to the friendship Violet makes with her mentor Vlad (Zlatko Burić), a washed up opera singer who becomes both her mentor and manager. Naturally, he has his own set of problems. You never specifically see him mentor her, but their friendship has enough heft and complexities to keep the story moving with charm. The dynamic she has with Vlad is charming and leads to very sweet moments, but I wish it focused more on the relationship with her mom with how incredibly prominent she supposedly is.

Instead, a lot of the narrative hits the same familiar chords as Billy Elliot, even down to the fact that Billy Elliot himself, Jamie Bell (also a fellow Pisces Arianator), is an executive producer on this. Like Billy Elliot, the film works best when the scenes are dedicated to the friendship between the student and her mentor, but they don’t have enough depth.

Though Violet is a relatable character, Minghella never really establishes a clear motivation to keep her motivated in this competition. Besides the fact that she has drive and a dream, it’s just not enough to keep her complex, which brings me back to the mom relationship. If there was just a little bit more dimension applied to them, that would be enough to make Violet the entire force you root for. She is great as an avatar for the audience, but at the end I kept asking myself, “Why did she want to win again? For the sake of just winning? To make her mom proud because that aspect is abandoned? To prove something to herself though she never feels that self-doubt towards the second half?”

The major layer that falls flat is whenever a subplot (that’s not even much of a subplot) revolves around boys. Violet has a guy in her band from her class who is fully infatuated with her and it adds absolutely nothing to the story, especially when it goes nowhere. Even when that conflict is intensified later on because of another generic pretty boy getting involved, the film swims into the vat of familiarity of other rise-to-stardom narratives of its type, and you wish it would get out of there. But, it solidifies its place once Rebecca Hall’s character is introduced.

By that point, I just waved to the movie:

CAN WE HAVE ONE MOVIE - JUST ONE - WHERE A RECORD LABEL MANAGER IS NOT AT ALL A FRIGGIN’ SCUMBAG?! It’s an excruciating trope that’s tired. We’ve seen it in A Star is Born, Bohemian Rhapsody, Jem & the Holograms and now this. Granted, she’s not completely antagonistic, but she adds the most predictable confliction to the story that you can spot from a mile away.

Despite the many flaws lying within the story’s familiarity and script, Teen Spirit prospers from a great performance by Elle Fanning, and serves as an electrifying directorial debut by Max Minghella making it a joyously fun experience at the movies.

Rating: 3/5 | 65%