BANDSLAM hopes to woo the same pre-teen crowd as the High School Musical series and HSM’s Vanessa Hudgens is cast in a key role, which includes a full vocal work-out in the grandstand finale.

Director and co-writer Todd Graff delivers a winning rites of passage story mixed with all of the usual ingredients (romance, bullying, a last-gasp victory snatched from the slavering jaws of defeat) without laying on the saccharine too thickly.

As the new boy at Martin Van Buren High School, music fan Will Burton reinvents himself as a cool loner.

When Will learns about a high-profile battle of the bands, he joins forces with a number of other misfits to write and perform an original song – and prove that anything is possible.

Bandslam rocks and rolls to a familiar song sheet, but Graff’s film fizzes with infectious energy, matched by a charm and some particularly droll dialogue that should easily win over older audiences, too.

BANDSLAM (Cert. PG, 111 mins)
Stars: Gaelan Connell, Vanessa Hudgens, Aly Michalka, Lisa Kudrow, Scott Porter
Directed by Todd Graff