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EMO The Musical review [Berlinale]: Dir. Neil Triffett (2017)

EMO The Musical: Neil Triffett’s feature length adaption of his own short film debuts at the 2017 Berlinale.

EMO The Musical review by Andrew Gaudion at the 2017 Berlin Film Festival.

EMO The Musical

EMO The Musical

High school. An environment that has often been pillared for dramatic cinematic potential. It is not hard to see why. The experiences many of us have between the ages of 13 and 18 have a huge effect on the type of person we become as an adult. It is a time in our lives where we experience many things for the first time, where we try out several identities just to see which one fits best. You may have found that fit easily, or you may have just been kidding yourself. This exploration for a sense of self-identity is what is at the crux of Neil Triffett’s feature length adaption of his own short film, and while it is capable of delving into this emotionally complex adolescent world with a keen gaze, it often resorts to base-level stereotypes to cut too many corners.

Ethan (Benson Jack Anthony) is a self-proclaimed emo, but has struggled to fit in at his school due to a lack of like-minded spirits. After a supposed attempted suicide, he is expelled and forced to change schools. There, he finally finds another group of emo peers, and becomes desperate to join their band for an upcoming music competition. Their only competitors rise in the form of the Christian clique at school, including Trinity (Jordan Hare), who Ethan soon starts to fall for.

EMO The Musical

EMO The Musical

EMO The Musical establishes its brand of musical very early on; we’re in spontaneous performance territory here folks. What also becomes clear is that these songs are largely parody based, and are too indistinguishable from one another to seem all that clever, making it quite hard to engage with the film’s satire. Occasionally it does work, the songs Ethan performs with his band often offers a sharp observation of the Emo-brand, while the ‘What if Jesus was an Emo’ number is where the film seems at its most accomplished on a satirical level.

The crux of the film is concerned with Ethan’s need to be accepted by the new fellow Emo’s at his new school, something that is complicated by his attraction to Trinity. Very little is done to establish this relationship; they simply just seem to like one another, regardless of really knowing each other. They are largely used as a tool to reveal the insecurities and phony-ness of both the Christian and Emo-cliques, both groups filled with people lying to their true selves to fit a model that will allow them access to peer group in which to attach themselves, all in the name of high school survival. No second guesses as to what the ultimate message of the film ends up being (spoiler: it’s be yourself), but it does well to address certain prejudices.

The high school environment Triffett explores is made up of several eccentricities and background gags that often trade in stereotypes. He seems to be striving for something that feels unique and oddball, but it only ends up feeling too loosely sketched. He explores certain prejudices, namely those held by Christian groups to homosexuals, but it never breaks the surface of expectation. This could have been forgiven if the songs themselves had a bit more wit, yet unfortunately they offer little, leaving you without much to hold on to as events unfold in a very predictable fashion.

EMO The Musical

EMO The Musical

For the most part, the performances entertain. Benson Jack Anthony has a Say Anything-era Cusack vibe to him, and he strikes a nice chord with Hare, making up for the lack of depth in their relationship. While both aren’t entirely convincing when it comes to dubbing their over-produced vocals, they have enough engaging energy to ensure you care about the pairing, even if the film itself often seems against them.

There is a positive message within Triffett’s film, one of standing against prejudice and finding the courage to be happy with who you really are, not who you think you should be. His short from which this is based articulates it in a much more concise manner. It would seem to be the case that he said all he needed to say in that 20-minute short, with this 90-minute movie often struggling to fill the time to get by. A kind-spirited, yet predicable and uninspired musical that fails to get the toe-tapping.

EMO The Musical review by Andrew Gaudion, February 2017.

EMO The Musical was reviewed at the 2017 Berlin Film Festival.

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