Nostalgia has powered the American box office for the better part of a decade with millennials and Gen Xers clamoring for remakes and reboots that call back to memories of their childhoods. For some moviegoers (including me, full disclosure), this has led to a dearth of new, enticing content in favor of retreads while for others, it’s provided the lone reason for visiting a dying movie theater industry. No matter your stance, money talks and films hearkening back to the past are the loudest ones going. In that vein, a blast from the past hits theaters and streaming platforms this summer in Bill & Ted Face The Music which continues the franchise that began in the late 1980s and whose last film came in 1991. Will the new film be able to keep up with the times or will it represent just the latest attempt to cash in on the nostalgia craze?
Yet to fulfill their rock and roll destiny, the now middle aged best friends Ted Logan (Keanu Reeves) and Bill S. Preston (Alex Winter) set out on a new adventure when Kelly (Kristen Schaal), daughter of their previous guide from the future Rufus (George Carlin) returns to present day Earth to warn them that the song Rufus informed them about is still needed to save life as we know it. Along the way, they will be helped by their daughters Billie (Brigette Lundy-Paine) and Thea (Samara Weaving) and a new batch of historical musical figures to seek the song that will set their world right and bring harmony in the universe.
Bill & Ted Face The Music does contain much of the humor that made the first two installments so beloved. Reeves and Winter are the same dim but lovable aspiring rock stars whose collective obliviousness amidst their universe-shaping importance possesses a certain charm and leads them into the complicated hijinks that powers the films’ plots. But aside from their journey toward the Macguffin that is their universe saving song, Face The Music is also at its heart a love story about family with Bill, Ted, their daughters, and their respective wives Princess Joanna (Jayma Mays) and Princess Elizabeth (Erinn Hayes). The relationships between the husbands and wives are where the film attempts to grow up alongside its audience and meet them where they are. We see Bill & Ted as the family men who must focus on supporting their households and spouses in the face of real world problems like attentiveness and communication, a departure from their worries of party time and excellency as young men. In a similar vein, through their devotion to their daughters, we see the older Gen Xers transition into fathers who just want the best for their kids. The infusion of age appropriate concerns with the personalities that drew viewers back into the franchise works as a mix that speaks to where fans may be currently while taking them on a ride back to yesteryear.
After waiting nearly thirty years for the return of the lovable goofs who are Bill & Ted, it is the supporting ensemble cast who end up stealing the show. Of the film’s secondary characters, Jillian Bell’s Dr. Taylor Wood and Anthony Carrigan’s Dennis Caleb McCoy are the clear scene stealers who end up providing consistent laughs whenever they appear onscreen. Bell is hilarious as a therapist trying her best to be patient with the obliviousness of the long-time best friends in the face of their crumbling marriages who is then thrust into the middle of a time traveling fiasco. Her incredulousness throughout her scenes is both humorous and relatable to viewers who can imagine their own reaction to such a scenario, providing a voice for the audience within the film that often works so well in comedies. Carrigan’s bumbling robot character is also a source of laughter, going from intimidating Terminator homage to a charming tag-a-long for the crew that is assembled slowly throughout the film.
Bill & Ted Face The Music doesn’t break any new ground and is largely a return to familiar territory. While the depiction of the title characters’ current family life does provide some new ground to mine and is well done, for the most part, it’s the nostalgic member berry that it was intended to be. This won’t be a bad thing for its target audience, but young viewers may be puzzled as to why this ever caught on so much in the first place. Samara Weaving and Brigette Lundy-Paine aren’t given much to do aside from being female facsimiles of their fathers and they do the best they can with the material, but launching their own continuation of the franchise is unlikely. Instead, Bill & Ted Face The Music is the band returning from the curtain call for one encore for their fans to enjoy. If you loved the material before, the swan song will entertain you just the same.
Image: United Artists Releasing
