Plot
Will Burton (
Gaelan Connell) is a music enthusiast and a
David Bowie fan with a hint of rock and roll and boy next door. Throughout the movie, Will writes journal-like e-mails to Bowie seeking approval of his music, although Bowie never answers. When Will's mother Karen (
Lisa Kudrow) finds a new job, he switches to a new school, which he is eager to do since he was bullied at his previous one. During lunch one day at his new school, he meets a girl who says her name is written Sa5m, but pronounced Sam (
Vanessa Hudgens). She tells him about Bandslam, an annual music competition in which the winning band gets a recording contract. Will and Sa5m quickly become friends, but shortly after, he is sought after by another girl named Charlotte Barnes (
Alyson Michalka). One afternoon, Charlotte asks Will to join her in an after-school day-care center. When she starts inviting him to hang out with her, the teenager is stunned—as is his single mother Karen. Impressed by his eclectic knowledge of music, Charlotte, who is a gifted singer-songwriter, asks Will to manage her rock/
ska band. Her goal is apparently to take revenge on her
egocentric musician ex-boyfriend Ben Wheatley (
Scott Porter) during Bandslam.
Unsure of what he is getting himself into, Will agrees to help Charlotte's band (later called "I Can't Go On, I Will Go On") which includes Bug (
Charlie Saxton) and Omar (Tim Jo), eventually expanding it with more like-minded outcasts. These include drummer Basher Martin (
Ryan Donowho), who first hesitates because he has anger management issues and dislikes the idea of Bandslam, because he believes people don't appreciate the art, but decides to join after Will tells he has an older sister who is often around (in fact this is Karen). Against all odds, the group's sound starts to come together and their prospects for success look bright. Even more surprising, Will starts losing his "loser-status". Once he gets committed in Charlotte's band, however, he is unable to complete a project he was going to do with Sa5m. After spending a day with Sa5m, Charlotte teaches Will how to properly kiss a girl by showing him one night in the car. Will takes Sa5m to the Overlook, where, after knocking off her hat and ripping her book out of her hand, he kisses her. She asks him to come see a movie with her, but he stands her up after Charlotte gives him tickets to a band called Burning Hotels. After that, Sa5m starts ignoring Will at school. He visits her house, hoping to apologize. Her mom then shows him a video of a younger Sa5m performing "
Everything I Own", but when Sa5m walks in, she is outraged and orders Will to leave. As an apology, he makes a short yet touching documentary about her for his Human Studies project and she eventually forgives him.
After Will accidentally ruins Ben's attempt to reconcile with Charlotte, Ben decides to do a little research on him, in order to ruin his image. He finds out about Will's father, who was sent to prison years ago when he accidentally killed a child while
driving drunk. Ben then starts to call Will "Dewey" (just as other students did at his old school), which stands for "DWI", Driving While Intoxicated. Will detests this nickname because it reminds him of his father, whom he is ashamed of. What is more, Charlotte's father dies and she decides to quit the band. As she explains to Will, her father hated how she acted when she was with her ex-boyfriend, so after he got sick, she decided to change her image and be nicer to "people like [Will]", meaning outcasts, hoping that this good behavior would cause her dad to get well. The band members are hurt by this discovery, as it means she did not genuinely like them, but they decide to go on nonetheless, with Sa5m taking over as lead singer.
On the night of Bandslam, Charlotte comes backstage in order to apologize to the band, and after a moment of hesitation, Will accepts her apology. Right before going on stage, however, they discover that Ben's band (the "Glory Dogs") have decided to play the song that "I Can't Go on, I'll Go On" were originally to perform, forcing them to change their act at the last minute. Will suddenly remembers the video Sa5m's mother showed him earlier and suggests that they perform "Everything I Own", since it is the only song Sa5m knows. To buy some time, Will comes out first onstage, but at first he is embarrassingly silent. The students begin to chant "Dewey! Dewey! Dewey!". He starts to walk off the stage, but then comes back and decides to chant with them instead. After a while, he yells into the microphone, "Do we wanna ROCK?!" The band then shows up and fires up the crowd with an upbeat version of "Everything I Own".
Although they fail to win the competition, a
YouTube video of their performance gains the band popularity at school. David Bowie (portraying himself) sees the video and sends an e-mail to Will, explaining that he is starting an indie music label and is interested in having the band as one of their first artists. Will is so excited and overwhelmed that he falls down in the middle of the school hallway. The last scene takes place during Charlotte's graduation ceremony where Will and Sa5m are confirmed as dating.
Cast and characters
- Aly Michalka as Charlotte Barnes, popular cheerleader and a senior at the high school that Will attends. We are told later in the film that her ailing father does not approve of how she only runs with the "Populars" in school. Charlotte makes a vow to forsake the populars and run with the geekier teens like Will and Sa5m in hopes that this good behavior will cause her dad to get well. She terms this an "experiment". Her efforts to start a new band ("I Can't Go On, I'll Go On"), include making Will the manager and coach of the eight musicians that make up their newly formed group. Old boyfriend, Ben Wheatley, surfaces several times in the movie attempting to woo Charlotte back.
- Gaelan Connell as Will Burton, the male protagonist of the film. Will is an avid fan of David Bowie and writes regular emails to that particular gentleman. Will is also a music enthusiast and well acquainted with the mechanics of well produced, pop music. After relocating to New Jersey and a new high school, he finds himself managing Charlotte's new rock band. They hope to compete in the East Coast, "Battle of the Bands" contest called "Bandslam." He lives with his single parent mother.
- Vanessa Hudgens as Sa5m (the 5 is silent). She is Will's first friend at his new school in Lodi, New Jersey. She talks in a monotone and slowly because she says that "emotion is overrated" and she used to stutter when she was young. She develops a relationship with Will, but "breaks up" with him when she is stood up for a date and discovers that Will was at an event with Charlotte. We discover later that she is a gifted singer. After she reconciles with Will, she is appointed the new lead vocalist in their band. She recognizes long before Will that Charlotte is "hard wired" to run with the high rollers. Sa5m suspects that Charlotte's "experiment" might have wider scope in that a higher intelligence could be controlling their actions ("Charlotte times a trillion").
- Lisa Kudrow as Karen Burton (Will's single parent mother). She is concerned with Will's involvement with other kids at school because they pick on him due to the fact that his dad was sent to prison. She is a good mom and tries to protect him from the likes of Charlotte.
- Scott Porter as Ben Wheatley, the boastful and show-off lead vocalist in the original band,"Glory Dogs", which is now competing against Charlotte's new band, "I Can't Go On, I'll Go On". He is Charlotte's ex-boyfriend as well. In the later part of the movie, he reconciles with Charlotte and also becomes friends with the rest of the "I Can't Go On, I'll Go On" band. He serves as the main antagonist of the film.
- The film's fictional band, "I Can't Go On, I'll Go On" members include:
- Charlie Saxton as Bug, the bassist.
- Ryan Donowho as Basher Martin, the drummer.
- Tim Jo as Omar, the guitarist.
- Lisa Chung as Kim Lee, the keyboardist.
- Elvy Yost as Irene Lerman, the cellist.
David Bowie officially began talks in early February. Bowie has a vital role in the film as Will Burton's idol, to whom Burton frequently writes e-mails. He makes a short cameo in the end of the movie.[13] Liam Aiken was originally chosen to play Will, but for unknown reasons, it was given to Gaelan Connell.[14] Actually, when Connell auditioned for "Will", he was recommended to try out for the cellist part since he plays cello. Director Todd Graff watched his cello audition, and decided to give him the starring role as "Will." [15] Originally, Vanessa Hudgens wanted to play the role of Charlotte, but she was cast for the role of Sa5m on January 12, 2008. Hudgens sang "Rehab" for her audition.[8] In order to pursue the role, Hudgens watched The Addams Family and tapped into Wednesday's character.[16]
