Bandslam

Surprisingly, this worked. Credit goes to newcomer director who's only on his second try at directing, Todd Graff. He made it so that watching the movie, it doesn't have the generic feel at all. It was almost, almost, indie even.Secondly, the writers have created something quite original here in terms of the story. It has managed to avoid being too cliched, firstly with the characters and also with the storyline. And it didn't insult the intelligence of its audience at all.What I loved about the characters were the surprise talent of the male lead, and then the two personalities of the two female leads. One "don't do 'whys'", showing depth in her character be it avoiding difficult questions or just as a method of escaping life. The other introduces herself as, "Sa5m, the 5 is silent." Both very unique and interesting.Sam could have been written a bit more though because the story didn't really delve into her character. But there were more than enough in the other two to have a solid story behind what almost looked like a cheesy teen movie from the movie poster.However, the acting could have been a lot better from these young ones. But because there's so much depth in character, the actors struggled a little with the emotional performances.The music could have been better. The singing as well. There was only one song that was worth listening to again, and it came when the band was initially put together.But I do agree with how it ended. That was the only way that it should end, and I was dreading for it to go the safer, crowd-pleaser way.Rating: 7 / 10