Expanding his 2015 short as feature film debut*, writer/director Eddie Sternberg is running-in-place on this high-concept idea; aiming for likable he settles for harmless. Ed Skrein is twenty years past his boy band prime, stuck in a creative ditch and half-heartedly working on a much delayed solo album. Malaise & writer’s block caused not by drugs or too-much-too-soon syndrome (or even by aging out of cuteness), but from personal guilt, unable to forgive himself for putting career ahead of family back when he was fab. Meanwhile, his old band mate still a major rock star; at forty, planning a farewell tour. That’s when the big plot hook shows up in the form of (extremely high-functioning) autistic teen Leo Long who ad-libs a drum kit & accompaniment while Skrein works out some ideas for that phantom album riffing on a portable keyboard in the town mall. A small crowd gathers, listens, applauds, uploads to Instagram/Tik-Tok, the clip goes viral . . . you’ll guess the rest. Credit to Sternberg for figuring out a way to make the beginning and the end credible & satisfying. It’s the stuff that comes in-between the meet-cute and the finale that plays as thrift-store dramatics.
SCREWY THOUGHT OF THE DAY: *That original short, a two-reeler with a different cast, doesn’t seem to be available. At least, not on-line. But you can find a very short trailer for it which hints at a rougher sensibility in casting and execution. Just what’s missing here.
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