I GOT A TASTE OF WHAT everyone else was enjoying. It happened in elementary school, when I was selected to be in a scene from a school play, a musical. I was going to be with a group of students who were pretending to be friends dancing. The set was an outdoor space in front of a building labeled City Hall. The only dancing I ever did was in my bedroom with the record player playing. Being of wide girth, I was never comfortable dancing in public. Now that I was going to be in the middle of a group of students, I felt no one would really see me. When we practiced the scene this feeling of freedom came over me. The music was intoxicating as all of us danced together.  No one made fun of or gave me a dirty look as I moved to the music. I had never felt such a thing before, and I desperately wanted this feeling to go on. From that experience, I started watching television shows that included dancing. I watched how the bodies moved with the beat of the song. Every person I watched was either of average or slim build; there was no one who was overweight. In my mind, I equated dancing with skinniness. If I continued dancing, I would lose weight and become a skinny person; it was a dream come true.      MY NEWFOUND OBSESSION WAS NOT STANDARD fare at school, I soon discovered. For a girl it was no problem, but for a boy to be into dance was unusual. At least that is how I perceived it. When I was in the school library, I would look through books about the art of dance. I discovered all these different styles of dance, which sparked my imagination further. Seeing photos that captured ballet or folk or belly dancers in a striking pose for example were breathtaking. Unfortunately, there was no one at school I could share with in my passion. I did try once via a book report I had to read aloud in class; but when I went back to my seat, the student sitting next to me leaned over and called me a name. I never talked about dance again in class. It did cross my mind, if I was labeled one of the cool kids, would it then be okay to talk about dance movements? But I guess the fact that I would even consider talking about dance meant I was not cool. Through my early school years, it was apparent to me that anything outside of the norm was not acceptable. This knowledge made it easy for me to relate to the students in this comedic music movie.      TWO HIGH SCHOOL FRIENDS DESPERATELY LOOK for a third member to form a heavy metal band for a competition being held in their school that is not quite into heavy metal music. With Jaeden Martell (Knives Out, St. Vincent) as Kevin, newcomer Adrian Greensmith as Hunter, Isis Hainsworth (Catherine Called Birdy, A Midsummer Night’s Dream) as Emily, Noah Urrea (A Wake) as Clay and Brett Gelman (Without Remorse, Stranger Things-TV) as Dr. Sylvester; the story line for this film was pretty standard in my opinion. The formula was something I have seen in other teenage movies. However, the cast did a very good job in telling the story. Sure, there was a low budget feeling to the picture and there was not much depth to the characters; however, the honesty that was being displayed regarding teenage angst was real to me. And though I am not a fan of heavy metal music, I thought the music was decent. This is not the type of film to go out of your way for; but, for a couple of hours of amusement it hits the right notes.

2 ½ stars