Teenage Badass is a charming, lo-fi rock n' roll underdog story. There isn't really any more to it than that, but its goofy ensemble, well-realized aesthetic, and crunchy indie soundtrack are enough to make it a breezy and mostly likable experience all around.
Set in the mid-2000s, we follow dead-end 20-something drummer Brad (Mcabe Gregg) as he's cleaning houses with his widowed mother (Julie Ann Emery). Hope is sparked for Brad's music career when he gets a call from an indie rock band that just fired its drummer.
Brad meets the guys: Albert (DIllon Lane), the guitarist and also the most welcoming to Brad; Mark (Tucker Audie), the keyboardist who's constantly trying to balance his band life with his marriage to a disapproving wife we never really see; and Kirk (Evan Ultra), the drugged-out and egocentric (but also clearly the most artistically inspired) leader of the group. Together, they are Permafrost. Or, maybe it's Stylo and the Murder Dogs. They haven't quite figured it out yet.
The band is actually pretty good, and they quickly catch a couple of lucky breaks, playing on a local news station and getting noticed by a local, "legendary" producer Jason (Kevin Corrigan). But Teenage Badass is no reinvention of the genre, so from here, you can expect some pretty typical obstacles, breakup scares, family emergencies, and general inter-band drama. That said, there is a fun and unexpected heist sequence thrown in there for an extra pinch of absurdity. That was absolutely welcome.
The key components to Badass' humble appeal are its quirky collection of idiot characters and its confident, neon-record-store visual style. It's not typical to come across a film of this production scale and distribution level to have such a strong and unique aesthetic. It was always easy to look at, and that helped particularly during the film's more conventional plot developments.
Those conventions are probably Badass' greatest weakness; I'd think it almost impossible not to watch this movie without feeling like you've seen many moments in it a thousand times before, and done better by better films. You wouldn't be wrong, but there is something to be said for being "good enough," especially with the help of the characters and visual palette, to keep you interested. I never felt like the film relied so heavily on lazy tropes to keep up momentum that I couldn't be bothered to care; the Murder Dogs were enticing enough themselves.
I doubt it will make a lot of waves, nor is it really good enough to warrant going to battle for it. But as an easy on-demand watch, you could do far worse. If you like indie music, or goofy guys trying to make their way in the world, Teenage Badass might just have enough going on to keep you tapping to the beat.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gM9Kkb78w1Y&ab_channel=Netflix&w=585