It’s Spokane, Washington at the end of 1999 and Beverly Moody is existing. She feels like an oddball because her parents died in a car accident when she was two and she doesn’t have any friends. She lives with her grandma Gail, who works for the post office and feeds the two of them Tuna Helper and Spam and Eggo sandwiches.
As often happens, though, things change very quickly. Beverly finds a mixtape her mom made for her dad, but when she tries to play it in her Walkman it promptly breaks. The song listing on the tape is pretty cryptic, and naturally, Beverly makes a beeline for the local record store, where she meets the shop owner, Anti, who knocks back Tab like it’s going out of style. Beverly hopes Anti can help her find all the songs on the tape, but he’s more sardonic than helpful. Still, he gets Beverly started with a couple of tracks, cautioning her that the songs need to be listened to in order.
Beverly has better luck with her new friends, New Jersey transplant Ellen, who introduces her to Napster, and tomboyish Nicky, who paints her fingernails with Liquid Paper and glowers scarily if anyone insults Cheap Trick. The three of them tackle the mystery as only young teenagers can, and there may or may not be some stage diving involved.
OK, for those who might make faces at the idea of watching teens doing teeny-bopper stuff, Mixtape, while being a wee bit predictable, is unapologetically cute and not dumbed down in the slightest. These are not Disney teenagers who are just too perfect to be believable; the movie stays closer to Judy Blume than The Wizards of Waverly Place. It’s got a fine sense of dry humor and very little gross-out stuff; it doesn’t blow its wad too soon but lets out information gradually, and it has a lot of nice moments. We see these characters blossom and break down walls even when they think they have no walls to break down.
For Gen-Xers and Gen-Yers in particular the nostalgia is off the charts and not just the whole mixtape premise. It’s funny, but I visited Spokane in the summer of 1999 while on tour with the Continental Singers, although I don’t remember much about the town. I remember the mall and the church we played at (Assembly of God), but that’s about it.
Anyway, the movie’s look is bang-on without a lot of the visual representations of pop culture from back then, so the Spice Girls are mentioned but never seen. The characters do a lot of name-dropping, too, like when the girls shamelessly manipulate Anti into taking them to a concert by squealing over Britney Spears and scaring away his customers. The movie gets the clothes right—kids wear sweatshirts, Docs and cargo pants. There’s also a lot of acid wash and some jackets that look straight out of the nineteen-eighties, but thrifting is big in the Pacific Northwest so it’s easily explained.
And the movie lays on the Y2K stuff because 1999. The Moody house has a lot of Spam. It’s everywhere. Beverly’s nightstand is even made of stacked (unopened) cans of Spam because Gail wants to be prepared for the coming catastrophe. However, as any of us who were alive back then can attest, the lights stayed on, planes didn’t fall out of the sky, life went on, and the Spam had to be eaten. I think it took my parents at least a couple of years to get rid of theirs.
The only part that I thought was weak was when the girls sneak out to the concert with Anti. It’s at a bar late at night and they’re clearly underage, but there are no consequences whatsoever. No one waits up, no one chews them out when they sneak back in; everyone seemingly sleeps like logs and everything is hunky-dory. It’s kept very innocent, but it’s in no way realistic, especially considering the amount of noise these girls make when they’re leaving. No one notices and no one cares. Yeah, that would not happen.
Mixtape also runs a wee bit long. I kept wanting to hit the pause button to see how much was left and was surprised every time to see that there was still quite a bit to go. It’s not a big deal, though, because Mixtape is fun. If anyone is looking for a good family film, especially for older children, it will more than hit the spot.
Mixtape is currently streaming on Netflix. Rated TV-PG.
My grade: B+
Principal cast: Gemma Brooke Allen, Julie Bowen, Audrey Hseih, Olga Petsa, Nick Thune, Diego Mercado
Directed by Valerie Weiss
Written by Stacey Menear