No Alternative in the first few minutes, you are introduced to a flash from the 90s, when grunge reached its peak, you are looking cookie cutter parents, and two children the world hadnt took their edge away... yet
You are looking at two sides of the aisle, a gangster rapper, and an aspiring rockstar in the making after Kurt Cobains early demise when grunge was in the spotlight, sounds promising, put into the mix these arent leading a stable life, their dad who is a judge just granted bail to a violent criminal who went and murdered her family, garnering the communitys outrage and getting their father targeted and threatened
No Alternative takes one on a ride through a life, that while still close to reality, is one heck of a ride. The setting and the scenery arent that different from one would find at his own home, this warrants an emotional connection with the Characters, Thomas and Bri-Da-B are teenagers following trends of their time and channeling their expression through music, how their lives at first seemed uneventful, usual, and unworthy of being told makes one wonder what is yet to come
As the scenes go by transitioning smoothly in neat editing, one goes through teen rebellion, strict parents, parental hypocrisy putting their childs mental health behind to keep appearances, neatly showing how theres more than meets the eye at first, that, precisely makes us -as a community revisit our need to take a deeper look at mental health and the stigma associated with this, which is brilliantly hidden in the undertones of each scene until it is revealed how our protagonists are mentally afflicted with depression, an illness that was cowered to live in the shrouds of stigma in the 90s
No Alternative is in my humble opinion, a period piece, essentially captivating the most iconic era of contemporary history and doing that effortlessly, even when the plot felt heavy at some scenes the flow was natural and it balanced comic relief with emotional scenes, most importantly the neat twist that wrapped up and gender bending on the real life story that inspired the movie.
What was really remarkable about No Alternative was how great attention to details was brought to the foreground with even the slightest details looking just out of the 90s something thats worth praise considering the fiscal limitations it had being a crowdfunded indie movie, small details like Free O. J. shirt on Bri Da B during her open mic scene added a sense of chronology to a scene one can with no doubt consider the best, the aura of freedom and teen angst present in that scene was delivered to the audience
No Alternative is another teen movie about rebellion, self discovery, coping with parents, yet its not another teen movie with a happy ending where everything falls back into place, it is bitter and sweet with equal measures, with finely curated soundtrack, great acting, and refined cinematography, its a good watch and it raises our need for recognizing mental health awareness
