Teen Spirit Movie Review
Teen Spirit is the first directorial offering for Max Minghella. He’s worked primarily as an actor. You might recognize him from Horns, The Social Network or The Handmaid’s Tale. Teen Spirit is an interesting choice for Minghella for his first feature film.
Violet (Elle Fanning) is a teen from Poland living in the UK. She loves to sing and enters a singing competition called Teen Spirit. Her mother opposes her entering the competition so there’s a lot of typical teen angst in relation to that. My favorite line from the film is when mother and daughter are battling it out over whether or not she should enter the competition and Violet’s mother says, “I don’t want you to be disappointed.” To which Violet responds, “It’s too late for that.” I found myself thinking, “Me too Violet, me too.”
The best part of the movie for me is when Violet finds a man named Vlad (Zlatko Buric) at a bar. He happens to be an opera legend and he mentors her on how to sing and how to perform. Vlad is pretty hilarious and although he is drunk much of the time has good advice and is one of the few people cheering for Violet throughout the movie. There’s also some back story about a missing father which seems pretty typical for a teen movie but it didn’t add anything to the story for me.
The story is pretty standard and it’s filled with some pretty catchy covers. The last song is “Don’t Kill My Vibe” if that gives you any indication of how the songs are. There’s also covers of Sam Smith and Ellie Goulding so that gives you a barometer of if you’d enjoy this one or not. That being said the covers are kind of interesting and Fanning does a decent job with them.
The movie itself is pretty formulaic and you’ll probably be able to mostly guess what will happen. But Fanning gives it her all and admittedly the movie is better because she’s in it. Buric also gives a strong performance and provides some comedic relief that helps to make the movie enjoyable. Walking out of the theater I thought it was an entertaining little movie that showcased how versatile Fanning is. Much like a pop song, the movie doesn’t surprise you but it’s still fun.
Film or Movie: Movie
You’ll like this movie if:
1. You like pop music
2. You like teen movies about self discovery
3. You enjoy singing competitions
