111 minutes

In theaters August 14, 2009

Rating: PG-13, Comedy

Bandslam is no grandslam, but, like an overachieving cover band, this music-driven coming-of-age comedy in the High School Musical mode hits mostly right notes and easily exceeds our expectations.

Gaelan Connell plays music-loving Will Burton, who worships (and sends unrequited e-mails to) David Bowie and is new to the New Jersey town of Lodi. As a junior in high school, he is a loner and loser in the eyes of the in-crowd who fully expects his social awkwardness to invite ridicule, just as it did at his last high school in Cleveland. Of course, his single mother Karen, played by Lisa Kudrow -- the only parent we get to meet, and one who ends up an important and fleshed-out character -- hopes otherwise as she starts a new job.