TEEN SPIRIT: Familiar Tale Of Rising Talent Stays Sweet

The story of the underdog will always be a crowd-pleaser. An unknown phoenix yearning to rise from the ashes and pursue the limitless possibilities of their talent; an ordinary person the same as us, but with an extraordinary gift that sets them apart. And singing competitions have overwhelmed the pop culture and media landscape for what feels like an eternity – our endless fixation with seeing people like us become stars. If anyone can free themselves from the confines of mediocrity, then one day, we can too.

It’s a tale as familiar as an old friend from high school, but in Max Minghella’s directorial debut, he manages to keep the currents of the rising star story ever-flowing. In Teen Spirit, a young singer-to-be sees the chance for her dreams to become a reality when a singing competition rolls into her small town for the first time. Her desire to escape the confines of farm life with her strict, religious mother becomes as tantalizing as the promises dangled over her head for the price of stardom.

The film is, of course, about the struggles of staying true to yourself when an opportunity for fame and fortune becomes your own personal Cinderella pumpkin coach, but it remains a visually engaging narrative with an endearing father-daughter touchstone that anchors the film through recognizable beats.

Dancing on Her Own

Seventeen-year-old Violet Valenski (Elle Fanning) lives on the rural Isle of Wight with only her mother; a steadfastly religious Polish immigrant with a strict and traditional approach to parenting, while Violet’s father left them when she was little. When Violet isn’t in school, she’s waiting tables for the restaurant she works at, in church singing with the choir, or helping out on her and her mother’s farm.

Occasionally, however, she lets herself go from work a few minutes early to sing alone at a near-empty bar somewhere in town, when she’s not dancing and thrashing around in her room and singing along to the music she listens to on her old school iPod. Violet is an immensely gifted singer, but the confines of her home, school, and work life keep her from pursuing music to the extent she dreams of – or even hanging out much with people her age.

That is, until Teen Spirit heads into town; a highly sought-after and televised singing competition for young, musically-inclined hopefuls (not unlike American Idol); it’s the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to show her stuff served up to Violet on a silver platter. While her vocal prowess does allow her to make it past the first round, she needs a guardian to be present with her and sign a form in the second round due to her being underage. So, she enlists the help of an older gentleman, Vlad (Zlatko Buric), who once offered to give Violet a ride home after one of her nights singing at the bar (and was the only soul to give her a rapturous applause).

Though initially and rightfully hesitant of Vlad’s kindness, she knows her traditionalist mother would never be the one to sign for her, and when she discovers Vlad’s former life as an opera singer, the pair begin a partnership to mold Violet into a singer worthy of winning Teen Spirit.

Solid Performances, Connections, and Craft

The film has the fairly standard plot progression imaginable for a Star-Is-(Potentially)-Born type storyline such as this, with a few flourishes and misdirections here and there that come as a partial surprise yet still feel a bit expected to spice things up. It’s a beautifully shot film, however – Minghella portraying Violet as the scared, awkward, and innocent teenage girl that she is, still ever-aware of her vulnerability and the strength she has within her as well.

Elle Fanning fully grabs hold of the role of Violet Valenski and jumps into her skin, evoking the girl’s simultaneous hungry ambition and insecurity. Though strikingly beautiful, Fanning does possess a gangly sort of awkwardness that properly sets her apart, and she finds success in embodying the character of the grounded underdog.

The singing performances from Violet are also particularly delightful, each one shot like its own little music video to maintain an engaging spectacle beyond simply watching someone sing on a stage, with Violet’s cover of “Little Bird” by Annie Lennox being particularly fun to watch. And Fanning actually does all her own, extremely impressive renditions of the covers she performs (Fanning had herself dreamt of being a pop star when she was little). But Teen Spirit’s greatest strength comes in the form of Vlad and Violet’s budding relationship as a surrogate father and daughter for one another.

Vlad is seemingly estranged from his real daughter, she herself a young musical prodigy off studying in France, and whom he has not spoken to for quite some time, while Violet has dealt with the after effects of being left by her father when she was quite young. Though the duo starts off as a somewhat testy and unlikely odd couple, it becomes clear that they see in each other a relationship they have been sorely missing, and it adds an extra little something sweet to a film that otherwise might feel fairly commonplace.

Teen Spirit: Conclusion

For a film of about only ninety minutes, it does seem to drag a bit in parts – perhaps somewhat due to the cliché nature of the plot, or the way the film feels like it’s stretching its simple story out longer than it really needs to. And despite the fact that Violet remains bizarrely down-to-earth until far too late in the film before she finally catches the fame bug, it’s the emotional roller coaster of Violet and Vlad, of Violet and her mom, on top of the nicely stylized nature of Minghella’s filmmaking, that allows Teen Spirit to remain a worthwhile and joyous little journey to the “top.”

What did you think of Teen Spirit? Let us know in the comments!

Teen Spirit was released in the US on April 12, 2019. For full international releases dates, see here.