The older we get, the extra we are likely to romanticise our teenage years. As payments pile up, we yearn for the straightforward days of consuming cider in parks. We frequently are likely to overlook the unhealthy elements: the irritating lack of autonomy, the unrequited crushes and the doofuses you’re pressured to tolerate within the playground. However after 4 hours spent hanging out with the pretentious teenagers in Mixtape, I felt fairly relieved to be in my 30s.
Set in a nondescript city in northern California, Mixtape follows the exploits of tenacious trio Rockford, Slater and Cassandra as they head to a legendary get together on their final day of highschool. With Rockford about to go away her mates to maneuver to the large metropolis, she needs to immortalise the gang’s time collectively in musical kind. Each tune on a rigorously curated mixtape triggers a completely tubular flashback to one in every of their shared recollections.
Whether or not you’re breaking into an deserted dinosaur theme park or skimming stones throughout a picturesque river, the world of Mixtape is persistently visually beautiful. Combining heat hues with Into the Spider-Verse-esque stop-motion animation, every new body is a pleasure to behold, exuding a cartoony, laid-back power. Early scenes supply a powerful blended media aspect, too, splicing real-world footage with gameplay, Metallic Gear Strong fashion. But as an alternative of grainy second world struggle footage alongside hulking mechs, right here it’s a young person educating you in regards to the wonders of the Compact Disc.
Regardless of clear cinematic influences (Dazed and Confused is an apparent reference), Mixtape by no means forgets it’s a sport, utilizing its songs to create a collection of playable music movies. As Freak by Aussie grunge band Silverchair blasts out, you headbang alongside in Slater’s automobile in a enjoyable Wayne’s World pastiche, tapping buttons in time with the crashing symbols and crunching riffs. A flashback to Rockford’s disastrous first kiss is one other spotlight, with gamers controlling a duo of wildly flailing tongues with every analogue stick, mashing the saliva-soaked organs collectively in amusingly chaotic style.
Different flashbacks are a bit extra on the market, reimagining typical teen misadventures as fantastical, dreamlike vignettes. When the police present up at a home get together, for instance, there’s a minigame wherein a panicked Rockford and Slater sling a handed out Cassandra right into a purchasing trolley, drunkenly steering her throughout roads, Frogger-style, hurtling over ramps and screeching throughout a freeway. It’s all pretty foolish stuff – however undeniably satisfying.
After a dad or mum gained’t let one of many teenagers out to play (ugh!), Smashing Pumpkins’ Love blares out, oozing angst as Rockford and Slater skate down the road giving the world the center finger, every obscene gesture inflicting distant automobiles to blow up of their minds. Delicate, Mixtape just isn’t.
Half of the attraction is, after all, listening to which 90s bangers have made the reduce. Whether or not it’s Portishead or Devo, every new tune is launched by Rockford staring straight into the digicam, narrating the chosen monitor in a snarky and irreverent tone. It’s a nod to movies like Excessive Constancy and Juno. But the place Excessive Constancy makes use of protagonist Rob’s music picks to disclose extra about his failed relationships, Mixtape’s tune alternatives really feel impersonal and pretentious – nearer to a pun-filled Wikipedia entry than one thing that actually enriches Rockford’s character.
There’s a life-affirming, reflective pleasure to be present in watching characters develop earlier than our eyes, reminding us that it’s by no means too late to higher ourselves. But the dearth of an emotional throughline lets Mixtape down. Whereas it’s stuffed with pithy one liners, its writing fails to evoke something deeper. When our gang lastly arrives on the get together within the finale, it isn’t a euphoric and heartwarming second, the cathartic fruits of our trio’s trials and tribulations, however merely a booze-filled box-ticking train.
This mixtape, then, performs it protected, curating a crowd-pleasing compilation of teenage tropes and homages to coming-of-age cinema. It’s an attractive and inventively foolish collection of musical vignettes – however with none actual battle at its core, the journey fails to match the memorable heights of Life Is Unusual. Very like a night spent scrolling via traditional music movies on YouTube, there’s a easy, nostalgic pleasure to be discovered. However as soon as this four-hour spectacle is over, you is perhaps left wishing that you just’d spent your time extra correctly.
