Growing up in London in the 2000s isn’t easy. Two teens looking for direction and themselves connect over music and life as they become almost adults.
Written by Anna-Elizabeth Shakespeare and Hillary Shakespeare with the latter also directing, Soundtrack to Sixteen is another coming of age film that is being released to teens everywhere as well as the rest of the world. While it may appeal to teens, it doesn’t fully work for this adult. The titles of the film would imply more music or at least a connection to music that would be deeper than simply a scene on a bus talking about it and then not really bringing it up again. With a title like that, the soundtrack is something one would expect to be more central to the story and something that would have been carefully put together from a collection of songs from the period the film takes place in. There is plenty out there for that and so much could have been done with the soundtrack, yet it’s all mostly generic soundtrack music and not one single song that could bring nostalgia for the period to the surface. This is a big downfall for the film. It’s something that could have taken what feels like a generic teen film into epic territory.
The cast here does good work, whether the material is limited or bland in many spots, the two leads do well. They imbue their characters with a real feeling of what it might have been to be a teen in decade at play and what it’s usually like for teens growing up feeling misunderstood and left behind. The work by Scarlett Marshall and Gino Wilson anchors the film and thankfully helps it from falling into the last pit of teenage films. They make the film their own and do their best to bring it realism and the right kind of emotions. They make the film from something that feels rather basic and turn it into something that is not a complete bore.
Despite the performances, the film still unfortunately comes off generic and as mentioned before the soundtrack is rather lackluster given the film’s title. Had the film has a slightly more interesting story and a stellar soundtrack, it would have been so much better and may have had a chance of going into the ranks of great coming of age films. For now, it’s a film the will be of minimal appeal to adults and will probably lose a lot of the teen crowd.