Aliens and Martians, observing planet Earth, couldn’t be faulted for coming to the conclusion that humans just want to sing: karaoke, Broadway, “American Idol,” “The Voice,” “La La Land.” Our collective human longing would appear to be best summed up by the gist of this Monty Python scene:
Hero’s Journey
The concept of the Hero’s Journey, as introduced to American academia by Joseph Campbell, is now fairly well-established on the world’s radar. Most people are familiar with what the phrase “follow your bliss” means.Violet Valenski (Fanning) is in desperate need of some bliss. She’s a withdrawn, 17-year-old girl, who milks goats and bales hay with her Polish immigrant mom (Agnieszka Grochowska) at a farmhouse on the Isle of Wight.
Violet’s clearly depressed out of her skull; such brooding teen despair you have not seen on the big screen for quite some time. Her so-called life is one supreme embodiment of “Ugh.” It’s the classic, too-pretty-and-talented-to-be-stuck-in-a-small-town ennui.
Unbeknownst to mom, Violet sometimes ditches the farm and takes the stage at the local dive bar, for a sparse audience of heavy drinkers. One such older drinker, looking like Albert Einstein on a bender, named Vladimir Brajkovic (Croatian actor Zlatko Buric), applauds Violet and appears to take an unhealthy interest.
Violet avoids Vlad, only to hear a crew of rowdy teen boys coming up the street at the deserted bus stop; Vlad to the rescue.
Out of the frying pan into the fire? No, Vlad’s actually an upstanding, gentlemanly individual, and a former opera singer. Can you say instant manager and voice coach?
Why? Because “Teen Spirit” is coming to the Isle of Wight. Auditions! Stardom! Vlad says he’s gonna take 50 percent, and Violet’s mom (who is very unhappy at this turn of events) says 15 percent, and no funny business, or Vlad will have hell to pay.
Elle Can Sing
It would seem there’s an uptick of young actresses who can sing at a pop-star level of competence these days. And play instruments. Here’s a related tangent: I follow bass guitarists on Instagram (because I’m a drummer and wannabe bassist), and there’s a plethora of young ladies on Instagram who are world-class bass players—like at a ridiculous, pyrotechnical level of prodigy-ness.Don’t believe me? Check out Kinga Glyk (Poland), Eva Muck (Hungary), Saya Gray (Brazil), Mohini Dey (India), Julia Hofer (Austria), and Tal Wilkenfeld (Australia/USA)—an insane level of musicianship. This is the Hero’s Journey in action: All these young bassists have already found their bliss.
Likewise, Elle Fanning isn’t just lip-syncing. Like her contemporary Hailee Steinfeld, she can sing. Fanning might not be at Steinfeld’s level and start a parallel career as a pop star, but as an actress nailing the part of up-and-coming pop star—nail it, she most certainly does.
It helps that “La La Land” producer Fred Berger was onboard for this little movie, because while “Teen Spirit” is kind of a one-trick pony and the story’s a little thin, it’s got a captivating music video quality and functions as a short, sweet Cinderella-goes-to-the-ball mini-tale.
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