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80Had Cameron Crowe and the late John Hughes collaborated on a movie populated by Disney Channel superstars, the result might have looked and sounded a lot like Todd Graff's Bandslam. And that's meant as a compliment.
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80High school musicals have their scrappiest number in Bandslam, an awkward, earnest, almost irresistible indie.
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the script's earnest intelligence and the actors' charm (Connell, Hudgens and Kudrow are especially fun to watch) make this film an entertaining ode to teenage joie de vivre.
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75This isn't a breakthrough movie, but for what it is, it's charming, and not any more innocuous than it has to be.
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75Here's the surprise: Bandslam may come from synthetic materials, but the characters are a little more complicated than usual.
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75The late John Hughes would have liked Bandslam, an upbeat high school musical that plays like a garage-band cover of "The Breakfast Club."
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75Bandslam is "Camp'' with rock 'n' roll instead of show tunes, but its roots go back to the Busby Berkeley backstagers and Mickey-and-Judy let's-put-on-a-show musicals of the 1930s.
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75Misfit teens in the process of forming a high school band learn life lessons and raise their goblets of rock. But there's enough of a strong filmmaking backbeat in Bandslam to carry the movie's light tune.
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70Best of all is newcomer Connell, the kind of charismatic kid who would have been cast in "Freaks and Geeks" ten years ago.
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Todd Graff's film is written with a desperate cleverness that clamors for attention over the brainless against-the-odds music-competition plot.
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Buoyant, gratifying and, yes, rocking.
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67Bandslam works best when it's focused on young, adorably neurotic creative types putting on a show.
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67Bandslam belongs to Connell. He has the unruly 'fro and endearing shamblingness of a young Daniel Stern, and he ably brings to life that rarest of cinematic qualities: decency.
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67Throughout its first two acts, Bandslam is charming, sweet, and funny enough to merit inclusion in the upper echelon of teen comedies. Then comes a third act weighed down with arbitrary romantic conflicts, leaden melodrama, and a tiresome subplot.
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63Fairly entertaining, if hardly surprising, results.
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63Two incompatible movies duke it out in Bandslam. Although it's the wimpy teen musical that prevails, it's the misfit coming-of-age story that leaves an impression.
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60Surprisingly watchable despite the formulaic teen format.
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50The performances in Bandslam are uniformly strong -- good enough to make you wish this bunch of charismatic, talented kids had been given better material.
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The least offensive teen movie in ages.
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50Lack of sparkling teen chatter prevent this movie from being a slam dunk.
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Positive: 6 out of 7
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Mixed: 1 out of 7
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Negative: 0 out of 7
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