Something Cult, Foreign-Language or Indie #279: Emo the Musical (2016).

 

Emo teen Ethan (Benson Jack Anthony) is expelled from his high school after he tries unsuccessfully to hang himself on campus. He then starts at the dilapidated Seymour High, where he's instantly smitten with naive Catholic girl Trinity (Jordan Hare), even though he claims to despise everything she represents. She's eager to convert him, but Ethan is far more interested in joining the school's alternative rock band, Worst Day Ever, part of the Emo clique, whose violent and rebellious leader Bradley (Rahart Adams) is rivals with the Christian clique's leader Isaac (Jon Prasida). So Ethan successfully auditions for Bradley and then goes full-tilt emo, with black eyeliner and aggressively possessive girlfriend Roz (Lucy Barrett). But nonetheless, Ethan's heart remains set on Trinity, and this puts a strain on his relationship with his bandmates, particularly Bradley, as they try to win the school's annual battle of the bands competition. This is all told, as the title suggests, with an interwoven cocktail of original songs.

Did I enjoy Emo the Musical? Well, I'm a millennial, I needed an intervention in high school, my favourite bands include Good Charlotte, Fall Out Boy and My Chemical Romance and I'm an atheist and this movie pretty remorselessly satirises Christianity. So it's pretty safe to assume I absolutely loved it. Based on his 2014 short, writer-director Neil Triffett's feature debut takes no prisoners, mocking even the emo subculture itself in how Ethan is gradually revealed to be something of a poser. But Triffett and Anthony still make the viewer care enough to follow his journey from whiny brat to a more disillusioned but conscientious character. The songs, which Triffett co-wrote with Craig Pilkington and Charlotte Nicdao, are all hilarious and fitting; "Jesus Was an Emo" is my favourite. Triffett infuses the narrative with teenage characters who are all (deliberate) cliches but cliches that nonetheless exist, and his direction is suitably paced. Best of all, he keeps a firm grip on the mixed visual elements which are critical for emphasising the colliding of Ethan and Trinity's vastly different worlds. Plus, the supporting cast fill the scenery engagingly, especially with Hare making a winningly cheery girlfriend and Adams a very authoritative roguish non-conformist.

As an original musical, an Aussie teen romance and perhaps even a statement about both millennials and Gen Z combined, Emo the Musical gets not a note wrong. I give it nine wrist-cuts out of ten.