For Your Netflix Consideration: Bandslam

I can never figure out the movie audiences of today. They line up on opening weekends to see pure crap. And then they ignore completely good stuff that disappears from the multiplexes faster than David Blaine in Times Square. Thanks to Netflix, the smart movie crowd, led by yours truly, can catch up to the films that were ceremoniously dismissed by the CGI-addled assholes.

Such is the case with a little gem called "Bandslam." I vaguely remember some positive reviews for this movie, but once I got around to seeking it out, you needed Sherlock Holmes to find out. Sherlock Holmes the detective, not the sewer swill of a film that opened last Christmas. More movie crap. But I digress.

I popped "Bandslam" onto my future Netflix queue and, like the rest of Hollywood, promptly forgot about it. Well, it finally turned up in a red envelope and now I feel bad about never giving it a second thought. It's a flick that deserves your attention.

The movie came out last year before the TV premiere of "Glee." In light of the latter's success, "Bandslam" should get a second look as it really is the forerunner to the high school glee club saga. It tells the tale of a high school rock band competition in the Northeast. Is it real? Who knows? The movie is set in a Lodi, New Jersey high school, but it was totally filmed in Austin, Texas. Save for that lapse in authenticity, "Bandslam" feels completely real and organic.

Teenager Will Brown is a professional and experienced high school outcast who now finds himself in a new school with all new neuroses ready to bloom, which he explains in his regular one-way e-mail conversations with David Bowie. In an attempt to fit in, he gravitates toward two chicks, Charlotte and Sa5m. Yes, that's her name. The "5" is silent. Will works with Charlotte at a ultra bizarre elementary school art class, where the kids snack on teriyaki beef jerky in between regular ingestions of paste. His relationship with Sa5m is a bit more personal as their mutual lacks of self esteem mesh beautifully.

Will's saving grace is a thorough knowledge of music from rock to the most sublime, given that the girls discover "Wichita Lineman" by Glen Campbell on his iPod. This bunch, along with a few other miscreants from the cafeteria, are drawn together to form a band. Before you know it, they are entered in the Bandslam competition.

If you think you can pretty much predict the rest of it, you can't. Because "Bandslam" takes some dark turns that keep the viewer off balance and totally engaged. As weird as these kids are, you like them and their band, "I Can't Go On I'll Go On." The name makes no sense, but the members somehow do. They are smart and clever and conflicted and flawed. And what teenager isn't these days? I was finally delighted to see a high school film where the characters weren't overly good looking and completely oversexed. At last, an accurate portrayal and director Todd Graff has obviously spent some time with typical kids. In "Bandslam," somebody like a Zac Efron or a Taylor Lautner would have stuck out like a huge pimple on your forehead.

The ending surprised me as it includes a deliciously memorable rock version of the David Gates & Bread tune, "Everything I Own." Cheesy pop music never sounded so good. And, while I totally expected the David Bowie connection to result in the requisite cameo appearance, it actually pays off in a much bigger way.

I'll also mention Lisa Kudrow's solid performance as Will's overprotective mother. It's hard to believe that "Phoebe" is now playing maternal roles in movies, but time apparently goes on for everybody, including "Friends." Kudos to her for embracing her age and, unlike her TV co-stars, relegating herself to taking parts that she's ten years too old for.

Put "Bandslam" on your Netflix list. A nice way to brighten your evening. Now if I can only stop humming that blasted Bread song...

Dinner last night: Crispy spciy beef at the Cheesecake Factory.