Lemonade Mouth

Lemonade Mouth

Sorry it's been a couple of weeks, life has been full.

Today's movie is Lemonade Mouth, a DCOM (Disney Channel Original Movie) about a band of misfits, literally. They are a musical band, comprised of those who don't fit into their school's view of normal.
Since I love musicals when I heard that this was coming to Disney Channel I couldn't resist. I watched it and fell instantly in love with both the music and the story. As an outcast in school it was really easy to empathize with the characters in the movie. Plus, there are three really touching moments throughout the movie that I love.

And it's come to my attention that many of my readers misunderstand my use of the Play and Pause symbols. They aren't meant to be interactive, they are just something I put in to show when I'm watching the movie and when I stop to write about what I've seen and felt.

Time to watch.






The movie opens with a voiceover from one of the characters, Olivia, talking about what people think about the band Lemonade Mouth. She says that contrary to popular opinion they did not start out with the idea to form a band, they actually met and formed a group in detention. The detention was run by Ms. Reznick, the music teacher who has been forced to relocate to the basement to make room for the sports stars and new gymnasium. The kids in detention are Olivia, the narrator of the movie and lead vocalist for the band, Stella the guitarist, Wen the keyboard player, Charlie the drummer, and Mo the bassist. When Ms. Reznick hears the sound of toilets flushing above she starts to raise her voice about the state of the school and Olivia pauses and returns to the beginning of the day to show how all 5 of them got detention.
Stella just moved with her family from Rhode Island even though school had started a month prior, a fact which upset her and she is mad at her parents for not consulting her on that issue. Before going to school she gets in some time on her guitar to unwind. She is wearing a shirt that reads "Question Authority" when she and her mother meet with the principal, Mr. Brenigan, for her first day of school. He is upset at her shirt and her mother gives her a jacket to cover the offending shirt. At an assembly lauding the school's new gymnasium and sports programs which is really just a marketing ploy by the a sports drink company with a product called Turbo Blast. They paid for the school's shiny new things and as such have turned the school into a place dominated by the jocks and cheerleaders (kind of like regular high schools, except multiplied by 3). One of things mentioned by principal is empowering students so Stella takes it as an opportunity to speak out against the crowd and took off her mother's jacket and showed off her shirt because doing so gave her back her voice. She got sent to detention as a result of that.
Wen is seen as passenger in his dad's truck while they drop off his dad's girlfriend, Sydney, at a local community college. Wen is upset about his dad's choice to date someone much younger (she is only 28) and even more upset that his father seems to be giving more focus to Sydney than to him, one time even not picking him up from piano practice because Sydney needed him. When Wen is at school and asked to give a report he finds that his folder had gotten mixed up with Sydney's photography class portfolio. She arrives just in time to switch it back and the teacher asks if she is Wen's mother. Wen is upset that people compare her to his mother and calls the teacher stupid for thinking he could have such a young mother. That gets him into detention.
Charlie arrives at school hitting the back of his parents' seats with his drumsticks. After they stop in the parking lot his mother asks if he is excited for soccer tryouts like she is for him. Charlie's older brother, Tommy, was the star athlete of the school. Charlie's mom gives him the ball Tommy used to win the state championship game for luck. She starts to cry even though Tommy is only away at school, it's not like he died or had anything horrible happen. Charlie doesn't get it but he does understand that his parents are trying to force him into something he does not want to do. At tryouts he is terrible and is so fed up with it and the taunting of one of the current players, Ray, that he throws his brother's ball at him but Ray dodges and it hits the soccer coach instead. Guess where he sends Charlie?
Mo is dropped off at school be her father, an immigrant from India. He asks Mo to make sure to ask for extra credit so she can get a really high GPA for her college admissions even though she is only a sophomore. When he thinks he sees her wearing lipstick he chides her saying that she is too young for that sort of thing. Mo quickly wipes her lips and insists that she knows better than to be wearing makeup like that.She gets out of the car toting her violin case and starts to head to class. After her father leaves she runs into the bathroom and changes her outfit and puts on makeup to look like a regular high school girl. She runs into her boyfriend, Scott, another soccer player who is in a band called Mudslide Crush, the most popular band in the school (probably the only band). Between band rehearsals and soccer practice he doesn't get to spend much time with Mo so he asks her to skip class with him. They try to sneak out but are caught by the principal. She gets assigned detention while Scott gets off with a warning since he has to have time for soccer practice.
Olivia is very shy so she goes into the janitor's closet to read and knocks over some mops while Brenigan is driving past on his Segway. He opens the door and hands her a detention slip since she should be in class.

They use a cool storytellying device through Stella. Since she is new to the school and doesn't know where detention is the head of the AV Club gives her a tour of all the clubs and groups in the basement on the way to the detention room showing the audience and Stella how anyone who isn't related to sports is put away and thrust out of sight.

Right outside of the detention room (the new music room). There is a vending machine for Mel's Lemonade, an organic lemonade company. The light of the machine attracts all 5 misfits and they make their way to their assigned fates and they each stop and buy a drink and relish the sour but fulfilling taste.

Ms. Reznick makes the kids clean up her new music room as their detention punishment and she works herself up into a frenzy and decides to go give Brenigan a piece of her mind. She leaves the kids to clean. Since this is a Disney movie it's okay to leave 5 co ed teenagers alone together in the furthest room in the basement. Instead of getting up to trouble they get up to something awesome.





While cleaning they start to make rhythmic sounds with the stuff they are working on. They Charlie notices and takes out his drumsticks and starts to hit a beat on the desks. Mo picks up a bass (an upright, not an electric) and starts to pluck a tune. Wen sits and the piano and jumps in. Olivia starts to vocalize in tune with the music and Stella grabs an acoustic guitar. Olivia doesn't just read a lot, she also write poetry so she decides to sing one of her poems. They get into a groove and before they know it Ms. Reznick comes back in and sees and hears them. They end the song and notice her there and all start to hurriedly go back to work on the cleaning. She stops them and tells them their band is wonderful. The kids deny that they have a band but she tells them that the previous few minutes disproved that. Ms. Reznick tells the kids to join the Rising Star competition to stick it to Brenigan and everyone else who thinks they don't fit it. Their competition would include Mudslide Crush, so they don't want to risk the humiliation. Ms. Reznick tells Stella that this is their chance to be heard, in more ways than one.

The 5 misfits go their separate ways and each go back to their lives and their problems. Olivia lives with her grandmother and has a very old cat that she cares for very deeply but is sick and not eating. Wen's dad, sister, and Sydney want to go horseback riding and Wen tells them he hates doing that even though his sister says he doesn't. He just doesn't want to be around Sydney. Mo is trying to practice her violin so her father can see she is doing as he instructs. When he leaves the room she changes the tune to the song they had played together in detention. Stella is appalled at her family's fish dinner and her dad wonders if she's now a vegetarian. She proclaims that she's been a vegetarian for four months and somehow her genius family (not sarcastic, they really are all geniuses) didn't notice. She was even wearing a shirt that said "Vegetarians Rock."  Even though she can't invent things the way her family does, she knows she could start a revolution. First step in her revolution, get the band together to be heard.






The next day she texts the other 4 kids and they get together to discuss it. Stella signed them up for Rising Star as well as to open for Mudslide Crush at the school's Halloween party. They reluctantly agree to give the band a try. Their first practice has some hiccups, but by the end they are playing a new song, also written by Olivia. During the song there's also a kind of montage showing their school lives being overshadowed by the athletic minority and Turbo Blast.

They have to think of a name for their band, while trying to agree on one Olivia finds a threatening letter on their lemonade machine telling them to pull out of the Halloween Bash. The whole school is mad at them for taking time away from their idolized band.
At lunch one day Olivia goes to buy a Turbo Blast when one of the cheerleaders/Mudslide groupies takes it from her and the girl starts to threaten Olivia. Wen and Charlie try to come to help her but Ray (the soccer player and lead singer of Mudslide Crush) comes in and Wen and Charlie back down. Doesn't stop Stella, though. She takes a big swig of their favorite lemonade and spews forth all over Ray. When he tells Brenigan what happened he refers to Stella as Lemonade Mouth, giving them the perfect name for their band.






Wen goes over to Olivia's to work on music for their grand debut. While there he sees her cat, Nancy. She tells him that Nancy had belonged to her mother before she died so keeping the cat is like keeping her mother around. Wen asks about Olivia's father but Olivia changes the subject.

While going to their last rehearsal their hearts sink when they see a sign on the lemonade machine saying it was scheduled for removal. Instead of practicing Stella marches to the principal's office to demand that they keep their vending machine. It turns out that because of their endorsement deal with Turbo Blast they have to get rid of all other drinks.
Stella gets worked up because that machine is symbolic of them and their place in the school. Getting rid of it for another Turbo Blast machine is like the school is telling them to conform.

As if that is not a bad enough day for Wen, when he gets home he finds that Sydney is moving in with them and his dad plans to marry her.







Their debut goes well. When they first get on stage half of the audience boos them, preferring their Mudslide Crush. Their first song, however, is a hit, much to the dismay of Ray. Even his band's groupies are getting into the song "Determinate" that Lemonade Mouth plays. For their second song Stella passes out cans of lemonade to the crowd and tells them about the scheduled removal of the lemonade machine and tells them that it is proof that the school doesn't want individuality and that it thinks some programs and people (sports) are better than others. They start a new song and really get the crowd worked up. Principal Brenigan is also really worked up and ends up literally pulling the plug on their performance. The next week at school he takes them into his office and tells them they are no longer allowed to convene as Lemonade Mouth at school. The problem is, step 2 of Stella's revolution has begun: their message was heard.
All over school they find support for their band and their message. The AV Club, who had worked the sound for their performance, had already started selling CDs of their two songs and was giving them 70% of the sales. The week before they were pariahs and now they were the most popular thing in school. They not only had good music, they stood for something.







After getting their band back together outside of school things are going smoothly for everyone. Then one day Olivia is not in school. They find out that her mother's cat Nancy had died. The whole band goes over to offer their emotional support. They start to talk about their feelings and insecurities, especially about their families. Olivia reveals that her dad is in prison. He had made some bad mistakes after her mom died and now he's in prison. He writes to her but she is too humiliated to talk to him or about him. The band surrounds her again and then they start to play an emotional song called "More than a Band" saying that they are friends and family to each other and will support one another in everything. That was the first touching moment.






You know that moment when you hear your first hit on the radio while still in high school? I don't either, but they way they portrayed it in the movie I can imagine it pretty well. The excitement is infectious, even to their families. Wen is in the bathroom brushing his teeth pretending he is being interviewed when Sydney barges in. She is so excited for him she can't even take the time to knock, she has to tell him the good news. He then calls and tells the others so they all hear their song on the radio. Olivia and her grandmother are playing cards and they throw the cards up into the air because they can't contain their excitement.






They have 24 hours before the Rising Star competition when things start going bad, real bad. Mo comes down with a fever and cough, Charlie breaks a couple fingers in his garage while slamming shut a tool chest. Wen is helping his dad hang a picture on the wall when his dad asks him to be his best man at the wedding. In surprise he drops the picture and the frame hits him in the eye.
While Wen is chatting with Olivia the next day and complaining about Sydney Olivia yells at Wen about his lack of appreciation for his family, even Sydney.While shouting she loses her voice.
Then Stella sits down to stop the movers from taking away the lemonade machine and calls the band to come help her. They get picked up by the police and put in a holding cell to wait for their parents.
They start fighting among themselves while in the cell, some saying they shouldn't play since most of them can't perform anyway. After they go to their separate corners of the cell they start to fiddle with things and end up recreating the rhythm of their first song together. They then start to sing it and bond back together.






Now for the second touching moment: they have to talk to their families after being in "jail."
Olivia's grandmother is there first. She's glad that Olivia is no longer a loner, but remarks that this isn't exactly what she meant when she asked Olivia to get out more. Wen's dad is stuck at work but Sydney comes and instead of being upset that he has to deal with Sydney Wen gives her a hug for the first time and thanks her for coming to get him. Mo has to fight to get her dad to let her explain herself. She tells him that she's not the perfect Indian girl he wants her to be, but neither is she all American either. She hopes to be a combination of the two, and her band and her music are part of that now. She finally gets her dad to accept that she is growing up. When Charlie goes out to his parents' car he finds his brother Tommy there instead. Tommy tells Charlie that he has been doing poorly in school that semester and is not as perfect as their parents think. He tells Charlie to stand up and tell their parents that he wants to make music instead of play soccer. Tommy even suggests they talk to their parents together to support one another.
The best one of all is Stella's talk with her mother. Stella had felt like she was invisible to her mother, but her mother tells her that she has been watching how focused and determined Stella's been in starting a band and standing up for herself and the lemonade machine. Stella couldn't believe that not only had her mom noticed, but she was proud of her, too. Stella invites her mom to come see the revolution she started and her mom says "We were planning on it." "We?" They exit the police building and find Stella's dad holding her guitar with her brothers there, all waiting to escort her to the Rising Star competition.







Mudslide Crush plays first. I like this song a lot better than the one they played early in the movie, but the lyrics were terrible. Not terrible like they made up words and couldn't rhyme, but terrible as in they kept singing about how they were better than everybody else and everyone was jealous. Not like Lemonade Mouth's songs which people can relate to.

When Lemonade Mouth takes the stage the song is just horrendous. They play "Determinate" again, but instead of a nice piano intro it's messed up due to Wen's blurry vision. Olivia can't sing, Charlie can't keep time because he's trying not to hurt his broken fingers, and Mo has to keep stopping when she has a coughing fit. They end up stopping after the first couple lines and Ray from Mudslide Crush is ecstatic.

Mo and Scott had broken up earlier when she caught him flirting with one of the groupies (that and he thought her band should be secondary to his, like hers was just a cute hobby). When he saw how badly they were doing on stage her got his guitar back on to go out to help them. Ray fought against that and threatened to kick him out of Mudslide Crush if he did. Just when things looked worst for our band, the third touching moment happened. Classmates in the audience started singing their song for them. First one, then another, then their families joined in. Scott then told Ray that he thinks he could easily find another band and goes out to help Lemonade Mouth and plays back up for Stella (the only one who could still play) while the entire audience sings their song.

Lemonade Mouth loses Rising Star since they didn't actually play, but that makes no sense to me. The loyalty and devotion showed by their fans is something you can't manufacture with a record deal. If I was a music producer I would have declared them the winners from that alone.

Olivia then continues the narration that their lives have become better from everything. Scott and Mo get back together and he joins the band. Wen gives Olivia a new kitten to replace Nancy. He admits that Sydney genuinely cares about his family so he will give her a chance to be part of that family.
At Wen's dad's wedding Stella is sitting next to his old college buddy who used to play in a band, too. Shes asks him what he does now and it turns out the lemonade they love is his. Stella asks him to make a donation to their school to support the arts and they get a new music hall with Mel's Lemonade instead of Turbo Blast.

Then we find out that Olivia isn't just narrating the movie, she is actually writing a letter to her dad, the first one to him since he went to prison years before, and telling him all about her band and friends. She promises that she'll come see him soon. She ends by telling her dad that their band is playing Madison Square Garden, we then are treated to a song on stage. They've come a long way from the school basement, but their message is the same about standing up and being heard. This song is called "Break Through" and encourages people to stand up for themselves and what is right.


I love not only the music from this movie, but also the message it brings. It's not encouraging teenagers to go out and do things they shouldn't do, but it is empowering them to be real, to be themselves, to stand up for things.