Max Minghella is best known as an actor. Most will probably know him as Elisabeth Moss’ clandestine lover, Nick Blaine, in Hulu’s The Handmaid’s Tale. Some will know him as the son of Anthony Minghella, who directed and adapted the scripts for The Talented Mr. Ripley and 1995’s Best Picture winner, The English Patient. Now, following in his father’s footsteps, Max steps behind the camera to direct his first feature, Teen Spirit.
Based on an original script written by Minghella (his second), it tells the story of Violet Valenski (Elle Fanning), a polish-born girl who owns a farm with her mother on the Isle of Wight and dreams of becoming a pop star. She gets her chance when American Idol-esque singing competition, Teen Spirit, holds auditions on the Isle for the first time. With the help of former opera star turned homeless drunkard, Vlad (Zlatko Burić), Violet struggles to overcome her natural introversion and perform like a star.
At first glance, Elle Fanning seems like an odd choice for Violet. She’s not British, nor really an ingenue despite being just 21 and her only previous recording experience is a wild cover of “Moon River” with A$AP Ferg. It’s the kind of part that usually makes a newcomer a star, but Fanning is one of the most skilled young actresses working today and she pulls off both the character and the singing with surprising ease.
Let’s start with that singing. Overseen by producer Marius de Vries, Fanning trained for three months before production began and sings live throughout. Though she can’t necessarily belt in the same way Lady Gaga’s Allie did in last year’s A Star is Born, Fanning is surprisingly skilled at switching between chest voice, head voice and delicate falsetto for someone who doesn’t sing for a living. When Violet performs Tegan and Sara’s “I Was a Fool” to a near-empty karaoke bar, we understand why Vlad cheers so loudly.
That said, it helps that the songs Fanning covers are limited to a certain type of female pop star. She’s not asked to wail like Adele or attempt the vocal cord-ripping phrasing of Demi Lovato. Instead, she gets artists whose songs tend yearning and wounded, with heavy electronic production: Ellie Goulding, Sigrid and most importantly, Robyn. On one level, songs like “Dancing on My Own” (featured on the trailer) and “Wildflowers” allow de Vries and vocal producer/musician Fiora to hide any weaknesses in Fanning’s voice, but the big production also says something about the way Violet experiences pop music.
In a similar way to the way Bo Burnham used music in last year’s Eighth Grade, Minghella uses the songs Violet listens to and sings as an expression of her desire to experience more life. It’s perhaps no surprise, then, that these scenes so often resemble music videos playing out in Violet’s head. As she dances alone in her room to Gwen Stefani’s “I’m Just a Girl,” we see her living that pop star fantasy in a way that feels both personal and like a performance.
While that style might make the film seem too much like an episodic series of music videos, it does work as an expression of Violet’s inner desires and it kicks into high gear during her performances during the competition. The lighting is dim and moody to the point we can barely see anyone’s face with all the neon backlighting. It makes no sense for a TV show and while that lack of realism can be distancing, the way the film goes into a more fantastical mode there feels reminiscent of something like 1983’s Flashdance and it’s no coincidence that “Flashdance…What a Feeling” makes an appearance on the soundtrack.
Speaking of, it’s also no coincidence that Teen Spirit feels like the aspirational, female-led showbiz movies we’ve seen before. Violet’s story hits many of the expected beats–the nervousness that disappears when she performs, the threat of substance abuse, the dangerous flirtation with a more experienced pop star–it’s all there. However, much like Bradley Cooper, Minghella seems largely uninterested in digging into the logistics. We see a montage of Violet’s audition for the eventual televised audition, but we see basically none of the rehearsals in detail. Instead, we get a montage of rehearsals or performances combined with Violet tending the farm or dancing alone in her room. Partly, that because she’s not interested in the actual trappings of stardom. She is an introvert looking for a way to express herself and singing gives her that. Those montages aren’t about the showbiz spectacle, they’re about showing everything Violet’s overcome to chase her dream.
It’s a choice that won’t work for everyone and it’s easy to wish for more overt expressions of Violet’s emotional state. Indeed, by the time the film reaches its final act, you might start to wonder what Violet really wants—or we would if Fanning weren’t playing her. While it’s stunning to watch Fanning convey Violet’s desire for the handsome winner of last year’s competition just through the way her gaze lingers or display Violet’s disappointment with her mother (played with quiet gravitas by Agnieszka Grochowska) purely through body language, her performance reaches its peak in Violet’s climactic performance.
Fanning has been a star since Sophia Coppola’s Somewhere and it becomes clear why Minghella didn’t cast a newcomer in this scene. As she sings a cover of Sigrid’s “Don’t Kill My Vibe,” Fanning allows Violet to transform into a rock star. There are no big production elements and she’s not dressed in the sexy costume we usually see; she’s in a rhinestone-lined tracksuit and a little make-up. Yet Fanning sells the performance simply by the way she commands that stage and allows Violet to have the cathartic expression of emotions we’ve been desperate to see the beginning. It’s a transcendent moment and if Fanning weren’t already a star, it would make her one.
Though Max Minghella’s Teen Spirit is ostensibly about becoming a star, its true goal is to explore the liberation of creative expression. Violet sings because it gives her a way to break out of her shell and we get the sense that regardless of the contest’s outcome, she’d be fulfilled just by that one chance to perform. By the same token, while Minghella initially plays coy about what happens after Violet’s big performance, it doesn’t really matter. Violet and Fanning are talented enough that they can do anything they want. They’re stars, all they have to do is decide how to share their talent.
