This high school musical movie actually contains one of HSM's stars, Vanessa Hudgens, plus Lisa Kudrow as the single mother of the protag, Will Burton (Gaelen Connell),who is delighted when his mom finds a way to take them to live in a new place, Lodi, New Jersey. He was more then ready for a change. In one of the chatty emails to David Bowie that provide the narration, he calls his old high school "Guantanamo with lunch breaks." What happens at the new school? Will gets lucky. Real lucky. He gets paired off with Vanessa Hudgens in a class, and they become a couple. A former Alpha Female called Charlotte (junior prom queen, head cheerleader),played by Alyson Michalka, finds out Will has an encyclopedic musical knowledge and recruits him to meld her garage band into one that can beat the high school's reigning Glory Dogs and win the tri-state (NY, NY, CN) "bandslam." One obvious motive is that she wants to beat the Glory Dogs to trounce its lead singer, Ben Wheatly (Scott Porter),because he is her snotty former boyfriend. Aside from Ben, a generic model of testosterone overconfidence, Graff (mostly) steers clear of high school stereotypes.

This sets up a trajectory for the film that's like an older kids' version of Richard Linklater's 'School of Rock,' but Gaelen Connell is no Jack Black and the pathway to the big event isn't as cute -- or as climactic. That was one of Black's triumphs, but on the other hand Connell himself is way cuter than Jack Black, whose closest lookalike is the base guitarist, a Flea imitator who calls himself Bug (Charlie Saxton). Resembling young Tom Hanks or maybe John Cusack, with a weak chin, a sweet little smile, a mini Afro and a wrinkled brow, you can almost believe Connell's Will might actually be in the constant company of the school's hottest chicks. Not quite. He's not as articulate and soulful as Cusack, and not as edgey and dark as Christian Slater was in 'Heathers' or 'Pump Up the Volume.' But then Hudgens isn't the shiny, prefab girlfriend of Zac Efron this time. Au contraire. She gets to be the dark one. She calls herself Sa5m ("the 5 is silent"),wears dark clothes, and she reads all the time, even when Will's trying to kiss her.

When you think of Eighties youth classics like those two Slater was in, Bandslam looks generic. We'll just never relive that great Eighties youth movie moment or see the likes of the late, great John Hughes again. But when you compare Bandslam to 'High School Musical,' you realize this is not the kind of movie that you pan. It deserves encouragement. The screenplay by Graff and Josh A. Cagan is packed with inessential cuteness and never takes its dark moments seriously enough -- even though it pushes them too hard. The music Will leads the band into is bland -- and loud. There's none of the joy in rock frenzy that Jack Black comically evokes. Maybe Wil's expertise -- his celebratory (and still pretty touching) visit to the ruins of CGMG, where punk began -- may seem more a reflection of the 50ish director than a teenager. But none of that matters enough to maul this movie, unless you're desperate to show how musically hip you are. The cast is just too appealing and the action is just too much fun to write them off.

When Will reshapes the band by adding brass and an Asian girl classical keyboardist (Lisa Chung) and an elphin-spouting nerdy girl cellist (Elvy Yost) and a boy drummer called Basher (Ryan Donowho) whose majors are machine shop and anger management, if feels like he's bringing something to life (however silly the music),and Jack Black was just a puppet master. It's also good that Kudrow really seems like a single mom trying not to get too much in the way of her son's new life but still protective and sometimes forgetting herself and making him a friend, or as he says "doing that thing of talking to me like I'm Oprah." Sometimes Todd Graff's perky cuteness seems pretty real. Connell has been compared to a Michael Cera "without the sweetness." "Thank you Shia LaBeouf and Michael Cera" is something Connell has actually said, "for paving the way for someone like me to be the leading guy in a movie." But Connell is Connell. LaBeouf would be a lead weight here, and Cera would swamp the movie with his indie quirkiness. The best thing about Connell is he's not a scene stealer: he's a catalyst. He makes this movie built around him an ensemble picture, and everybody looks pretty good.

Will Burton (Gaelan Connell) is an unpopular high school outcast picked on as Dewey in Cinncinnati. His personal hero is David Bowie. His mother Karen (Lisa Kudrow) moves the two of them to Lodi, New Jersey. He is happy to be anonymous. He is a music obsessed kid who discovers that there is a popular competition called Bandslam. He befriends fellow student Sa5m (Vanessa Hudgens),the 5 is silent. Former popular cheerleader Charlotte Barnes (Aly Michalka) sees Will as a project and ropes him in to help with the daycare. They and others form a band to compete against former band mate Ben Wheatly (Scott Porter).

These are charming cute characters in a charming cute story with some charming cute dialog. Gaelan is a good lovable geek lead. Both Aly and Vanessa are former Disney stars with a lot of charisma. Lisa Kudrow has some hilarious bits. She's funny whenever she's on the screen. It's always nice when the adults aren't idiots. This is sorta like 'School of Rock' with a couple of dark secrets thrown in. It is adorable and a little awkward at times.

I had heard of and seen the poster for this film in the past, I knew it was a teen targeted movie with singing, I assumed it was going to be similar to High School Musical, so I watched to see what I would think. Basically Will Burton (Gaelan Connell) is a teenage outcast and a music enthusiast, he always writes to singer David Bowie with his thoughts, like a journal, although Bowie never answers. Will's mother Karen (Lisa Kudrow) has found a new job, so he has switched high schools and escaped bullying at his previous one, he soon makes with friends with a girl who writes her name as "Sa5m" (High School Musical's Vanessa Hudgens),pronounced Sam, the 5 is silent. Sa5m tells him about Bandslam, an annual music competition in which the winning band gets a recording contract, Will then meets another girl named Charlotte Barnes (Aly Michalka),she is impressed with his eclectic knowledge of music. Charlotte is a talented singer/songwriter, she is forming a band to compete against her egocentric musician ex-boyfriend Ben Wheatley (Scott Porter) in Bandslam, Will agrees to help Charlotte's band, later named I Can't Go On, I'll Go On, which includes members Bug (Charlie Saxton) and Omar (Tim Jo),also outcasts, slowly they create good music, and Will loses his "loser-status". But Will helping with the band gets in the way of helping Sa5m with a project, she teaches him how to kiss at one point, but he stands her up to go with Charlotte to a concert, Sa5m starts ignoring him, but he makes a touching documentary, with the song "Young Folks", about her for a Human Studies project as a way of apology, she forgives him. Will accidentally ruins an Ben's attempt to get Charlotte back, so Ben researches and finds out his father went to prison for killing a child while drink driving, just like his previous bullies Ben and others start calling Will "Dewey", which stands for "DWI" ("Driving While Intoxicated"). Then it gets worse when Charlotte's father dies and she quits the band, she explains that she changed her image and attitude for her father, and be nicer to outcasts, the band members find out this and are hurt, as it means she did not genuinely like them, but they go on, and Sa5m joins as the new lead singer. On the night of Bandslam, Charlotte arrives to apologise to Will, he eventually accepts, before they are due to go on stage, Ben and his band "Glory Dogs" sing the song I Can't Go On, I'll Go On were originally going to perform, forcing them to change their act at the last minute. While the band get their act together, getting the lyrics to the song "Everything I Own", Will buys some time for them going out on stage, the students chant "Dewey! Dewey! Dewey!", he initially walks off, but uses this chanting to make the phrase "Do we wanna ROCK?!", then the band shows up and excite the crowd with an upbeat ska version of "Everything I Own". Although they do not win the Bandslam competition, a YouTube video of their performance goes viral, even David Bowie sees it, he emails Will explaining that he is starting an indie music label and is interested in having the band as one of their first artists, Will is excited, and he and Sa5m are confirmed as dating. Also starring Ryan Donowho as Basher Martin and Lisa Chung as Kim Lee. Connell is convincing as the unaccepted teen, Hudgens is pretty and has a good voice, and Kudrow gets her time as the nerd's mother, the story is simple, I agree with critics there are the odd duff notes in the performances, but there is good music, a familiar but fun music-based romantic comedy. Worth watching!