Kat and the Band Review

Kat and the Band is a light-hearted British teen comedy that works as an excellent showcase for its young star Ella Hunt.

Kat Malone (Hunt) is a smart 17-year-old schoolgirl with the gift of the gab and an obsession for music. She talks her way into becoming the manager for the band Dollar Days. Kat has to juggle arranging gigs, doing schoolwork, hiding her age from the band, and her activities from her mother.

Hunt is an emerging talent in the UK. She’s best known for starring in the cult horror musical Anna and the Apocalypse and roles in the TV shows Cold Feet and Dickinson. Hunt got to show off her comedic ability and convince as a girl who could talk her way into and out of problems. She was great at talking her way into management but found out the task was a lot more difficult than expected. Even if Kat and the Band becomes a minor entry in her filmography it will serve as a nice curiosity for her future fans.

Teen comedy films tend to be a good jumping-off point for young actors in the UK. Bend It Like Beckham famously gave Keira Knightley her breakout role and Parminder Nagra has had a successful TV career in the US. Eleanor Tomlinson and Aaron Taylor-Johnson were both in Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging, and one of the first films Felicity Jones headlined was Chalet Girl. These films are good comparisons for Kat and the Band because they were all films that focused on teenage characters and marketed to a young female demographic.

Bend it Like Beckham is the film closest to Kat and the Band plot-wise. The main characters in both films had young protagonists who have pushy parents who want their daughters who focus on academics instead of their passions. Like Bend it Like Beckham, Kat and the Band had a ticking time bomb because at some point everyone’s going to find out and it would blow up in her face. This led to the film’s biggest issue: predictability. It doesn’t do anything new for the subgenre and it made Kat and the Band harder to stand out.

Hunt did have a good supporting cast to work with. The film featured the likes of McFly member Dougie Poynter, TV actress Katherine Kelly, Joanna David, and stand-up comedian Rufus Hound. Most were decent in their role, although Poynter was a bit wooden when his character found out about Kat’s real identity. The most notable supporting actor was Jennifer Leong as Kat’s best friend. She was likeable and grows more independent as the film progresses. The film ended with some bloopers and it was clear the actors were having fun when making it.

The filmmakers did overcome the generic screenplay and setup with flashy direction and editing. Kat and the Band was E.E. Hegarty’s feature-length directional debut and was backed up by an experienced editor, Andy Morrison. They made the visually engaging by using some fancy editing like in the beginning of the film where there was a transition from day to night by focusing on a bike wheel. There were a lot of sideswipes during the film that Kat and the Band look like a Star Wars film. I did like Kat’s style when at school because she was able to give her school uniform an indie chick look.

The band Some Velvet Morning supplied the soundtrack for the film. What they provided was a safe, pop-rock sound that’s perfectly fine for the teenage audience.

Kat and the Band was a safe and formulaic film. Despite this the talent involved showed off their potential and it should please the target audience.