B- | A poor group of kids in 70's Georgia form an off-brand troop of girl scouts. Directed by Bert and Bertie Starring Mckenna Grace, Viola Davis, and Allison Janney Review by Jon Kissel |
A movie even tangentially related to Carl Sagan is going to work a little bit on me. In Troop Zero, Amazon’s first direct-to-streaming major release, the plot revolves around the Voyager Golden Record, a project of interplanetary communication headed by Sagan and memorialized in one of my favorite Drunk History segments. The Golden Record immediately endears me to this film by directors Bert and Bertie (whatever), and if it enters the rotation of acceptable parent-teacher conference movies a la The Sandlot or Rookie of the Year, so be it. That’s been an underserved market for years and it’s time for a resurgence.
This southern-fried piece of family friendly programming immediately gains credibility through its star, Viola Davis. Recognized as one of the best working actors, Davis is working beneath her pay grade and her talent level, but without her and fellow Oscar winner Allison Janney, Troop Zero becomes a straight-to-video release or gets discarded as a Disney Channel feature presentation. It’s never clear why Davis and Janney thought this would be a worthwhile expenditure of their time. January is already a dumping ground, and to be dumped on Amazon Prime is further insult. Perhaps they wanted to give a boost to the female directing duo at the helm of Troop Zero. Perhaps they felt this can-do kid genre needed more girl protagonists. Either way, they improve a film that needs improving.
Troop Zero has so many identifiers of young adult fiction that it becomes about everything and nothing at the same time. Its protagonist (Mckenna Grace), from the poor side of town, is also grappling with the recent death of her mother. She’s got an effeminate friend, though for the inhabitants of a poor Georgia town in the 70’s, they aren’t nearly as cruel to him as they could be. The film takes place in a diverse community, again odd for mid-century Georgia, and there’s no hint of racial discontent. Black and white people are poor, and black and white people live in middle class homes. Throw in issues of conformity, girls in STEM, and a genderqueer pop icon, and the film is both of the current moment and out of its own moment. I can again appreciate the placement of the Golden Record as the reason for the period setting, but outside of the tiresome local dialect and verbiage, this film’s sense of place is toothless and empty. Family friendly films frequently have cruelty in them and lose nothing for it. Troop Zero is cuddly finna’s and catchphrases.
That said, I’ve got nothing against slobs versus snobs stories, or at least when the slobs are kids in the Bad News Bears vein. When Troop Zero is working, it’s doing so off the strength of the relationships between the kids, particularly Grace’s Christmas and local bully Hell-No (Milan Ray). While these could be better acted, as it’s hard enough for kids to be authentic without also putting on a heavy accent, the writing and the earnestness in the delivery covers up any glaring holes. I’ll even admit to tearing up in the final scene, wherein the kids all yell at passing meteors that they’re here, existing in their Georgia backwater despite their less-than-ideal circumstances. Troop Zero has enough charm and affection for its characters to make it into an acceptable vehicle for generic messages about inclusivity and friendship. I would prefer to see Davis bring down the house in something more worthy of her talents, but not everyone can fill their resume up with Doubts and Widows’s. C+
Troop Zero has so many identifiers of young adult fiction that it becomes about everything and nothing at the same time. Its protagonist (Mckenna Grace), from the poor side of town, is also grappling with the recent death of her mother. She’s got an effeminate friend, though for the inhabitants of a poor Georgia town in the 70’s, they aren’t nearly as cruel to him as they could be. The film takes place in a diverse community, again odd for mid-century Georgia, and there’s no hint of racial discontent. Black and white people are poor, and black and white people live in middle class homes. Throw in issues of conformity, girls in STEM, and a genderqueer pop icon, and the film is both of the current moment and out of its own moment. I can again appreciate the placement of the Golden Record as the reason for the period setting, but outside of the tiresome local dialect and verbiage, this film’s sense of place is toothless and empty. Family friendly films frequently have cruelty in them and lose nothing for it. Troop Zero is cuddly finna’s and catchphrases.
That said, I’ve got nothing against slobs versus snobs stories, or at least when the slobs are kids in the Bad News Bears vein. When Troop Zero is working, it’s doing so off the strength of the relationships between the kids, particularly Grace’s Christmas and local bully Hell-No (Milan Ray). While these could be better acted, as it’s hard enough for kids to be authentic without also putting on a heavy accent, the writing and the earnestness in the delivery covers up any glaring holes. I’ll even admit to tearing up in the final scene, wherein the kids all yell at passing meteors that they’re here, existing in their Georgia backwater despite their less-than-ideal circumstances. Troop Zero has enough charm and affection for its characters to make it into an acceptable vehicle for generic messages about inclusivity and friendship. I would prefer to see Davis bring down the house in something more worthy of her talents, but not everyone can fill their resume up with Doubts and Widows’s. C+
RSS Feed