Bandslam
All actors and roles (10)
Short description
Will Burton is a music-obsessed teenager who has trouble fitting in after moving to a new town with his mother. At his new high school, the popular Charlotte Banks takes an interest in his deep knowledge of music and draws him into managing a fledgling rock band made up of misfits. Their goal is the annual Bandslam, a regional high school battle of the bands whose prize includes a record deal, and beating Charlotte's ex-boyfriend Ben and his group is part of the motivation. Along the way Will also grows close to Sam, a shy classmate who becomes more than a friend, and he has to prove that music is not just a pastime for him.
Todd Graff directed and co-wrote the film with Josh A. Cagan, following his earlier Camp and preceding Joyful Noise in his directing career. Gaelan Connell plays Will, with Aly Michalka as Charlotte, Vanessa Hudgens as Sam and Scott Porter as Ben. The cast runs to 52 credited performers.
Released in August 2009, the film cost about 20 million dollars and took in roughly 12 million worldwide, a return well below its budget. On IMDb it holds a critics' rating of 6.4 from 104 reviews, while on TMDB its audience rating is 5.8 from 492 votes, so reviewers rated it somewhat more favorably than viewers did.
What's left behind the scenes
- All instrumental and vocal parts in the film are performed by the actors themselves, with the exception of the guitar parts by Vanessa Anne Hudgens and Scott Porter, and the piano parts by Lisa Chung. Hudgens and Porter learned their parts, but Jason Moserski from Relentless7 performs them in the film.
- The role of cellist Irene Lerman was initially written for a young male character named Ira Lerman. The director was so impressed with Elvy Yost at the audition that he ordered the role to be rewritten for her.
- One of the requirements for potential actors was the ability to sing. Director Todd Graff specifically insisted on this, so the actors perform the vocal parts themselves.
- The band's name, “I can't go on, I'll go on,” is taken from the final line of the 1958 novel “The Unnamable” by French and Irish writer Samuel Beckett (1906-1989).
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