Bonus Track
Directed by Julia Jackman
Written by Mike Gilbert & Josh O’Connor
Starring Joe Anders, Samuel Small, Jack Davenport, & Alison Sudal
Unrated
Runtime: 1 hour and 38 minutes
Available to rent or own on VOD February 11

by Shayna Davis, Staff Writer

Josh O’Connor heads rejoice! Before getting our pulses racing in last year’s Challengers, our boy teamed up with friend Mike Gilbert to write an adorable, gay, music-centered, British, teen romance, and I’m here to tell you—it’s pretty good!

The feature film debut of director Julia Jackman, Bonus Track, follows an awkward and friendless 16-year-old boy, George (Joe Anders), as he struggles to get through his final year of secondary school. With a mounting track record of failing grades, nobody seems to take his dreams of becoming a famous musician seriously. Nobody, that is, until the son of a famous musician, Max (Samuel Small), transfers to George’s school. Together, the two team up to make the perfect song for the end-of-year school talent show and form a particularly close bond in the process.

Bonus Track provides refreshingly well-developed characters, especially for a fairly typical high school movie. Though many of the players fall into tropes we’re all familiar with (ie. The Popular Cool Girl/The Bully, Popular Cool Girl Sidekick, The Awkward Nerd, etc), each one is given room to fully exist throughout the film and small details that make them feel human. Both Anders and Small perfectly embody that pure teenage awkwardness that grounds the story in reality, even if George has his head in the clouds most of the time. It’s refreshing to watch a teenage-centered piece where everyone in the film genuinely feels their age. We get a cute love interest with braces! Thirteen-year-old braced up me would have rejoiced! Having grown up on Skins, Glee, and many 80s/90s teen romcoms, it’s easy to take for granted that most high school parts are typically played by full-grown adults, looking and acting like full-grown adults.

Among the film’s possible detriments are a pace that drags in many places during the film’s runtime and a lack of any real, intense stakes. However, I would make the counterargument that the slower pace gives the story breathing space and allows you moments to really get to know the main characters. It allows time to take in little quirks and moments between the two leads that contribute immensely to their chemistry. By ‘lack of real stakes,’ I mean that any time something enters the story that could possibly disrupt George and Max’s happiness, it gets resolved fairly quickly and without much damage done. Some viewers may find this makes for an unvaried plot, but sometimes it’s nice, and needed, to see queer characters getting their way with short lived pushback.

A special shout-out must be given to Alison Sudal and Jack Davenport in the role of George’s parents. Besides an underbaked potential-divorce subplot, I thought their characters and screen presence were wonderful. There is a scene in particular where George unsuccessfully tries to hide a fresh ear piercing from his parents. Throughout the entire conversation, his mom (Sudal) is trying to help squeeze the dad (Davenport) into a pair of trousers that absolutely do not fit him anymore. It was both perplexing to watch and hilarious.

Finally, we can’t talk about a film called Bonus Track without touching on the music. With the film being set in England circa 2006, we’ve got an era-encapsulating lineup of Hot Chip, Franz Ferdinand, Wheatus, The Cribs, The Streets, The Knife, and one-hit-wonder Christine Milton. A group of artists that just beg for you to listen via that one yellow Sony portable CD player. The soundtrack’s original song, “A Very Bad Fun Idea,” is a cute pop bop, sung in the film by Samuel Small as Max, but on the official soundtrack by musician and actor Olly Alexander (speaking of Skins).

Overall, Bonus Track is a warm and wholesome movie. It provides a world in which these two teenagers are allowed to explore what they care about creatively and romantically without any truly severe consequences. I look forward to seeing what else Julia Jackman makes in her career and what other cute stories Josh O’Connor and Mike Gilbert cook up! I would recommend this for any fans of Heartstopper, Sing Street, Hearts Beat Loud, and/or Starstruck.

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