JEM AND THE HOLOGRAMS (Jon M. Chu). 119 minutes. Opens Friday (October 23). See listings. Rating: NN
Where to watch: iTunes
Adapting an outrageous 80s cartoon about girls who flick on their rock star personas with Allspark-like holographic technology takes steely nerves and a resolve to let the fantasy take centre stage. The made-on-the-cheap Jem And The Holograms movie has none of that.
Instead, director Jon M. Chu replaces the whimsical holograms with real world social media, treating the relationship between Jerrica Benton (Aubrey Peeples) and her empowered alter ego Jem (same girl with more makeup and confidence) like the way we posture on Instagram.
Jerrica, a self-described shy girl mimicking Kristen Stewart’s darting glances, records a video incognito as Jem. The lacklustre song (none of the music here is worth tapping your feet to) becomes an unlikely viral hit on YouTube and so begins Jerrica’s journey through all the stardom clichés.
Chu is familiar with the social media angle at play. Having covered Justin Bieber in two documentaries, he uses the Canadian pop star as the inspiration behind Jem.
Bieber’s manager Scooter Braun is a producer on the movie. However, Chu’s ideas about internet fame compete with filial duties to the Hasbro toy line the film is supposed to be about.
While Jerrica and her sisters try to find their group’s voice under a delightfully menacing manager (Juliette Lewis), the only actor staying true to the source material), and resolve some disingenuous sibling drama, they must also embark on a scavenger hunt through Los Angeles mapped out by the budding singer’s late father.
They try to piece together and discover the purpose behind a robot called Synergy (looking like a puppy designed by Steve Jobs), whose function in the cartoon – disguising Jerrica with a hologram – has been made obsolete. This ultimately becomes a prolonged distraction in a movie that runs in several directions, unsure of what story it wants to tell, and gets nowhere.
The whole thing is a mess, but Chu manages to scrape out some inspired moments, as when he intercuts the story’s action with eclectic performance clips from YouTube, perhaps delivering his most intriguing point in the process. You’re going to find much more raw talent online than anywhere else in this movie.
