Review: (S)KiDS sings an angry song and hits every note

Late in (S)Kids, the animated punk rock musical from writer-director Les Solis, animation director Lou Solis, and band Rare Americans, one of the characters says that life is a broken road, so we have to hold onto each other for as long as we can. It's a potent distillation of what this movie is all about, a clear articulation of the thesis that doesn't feel hackneyed or too-easy. It's an honest, beautiful moment, one that feels like a breath of relief after a tense ride through a turbulent senior year.

Because what is senior year if not holding onto the friends you've made, who probably feel closer to you than your family, for as long as you can, until those graduation caps fly into the air, or maybe until the end of the following summer when you all finally part ways, pretty much for good? The ties that bind in those teenage years feel unbreakable. I remember thinking that my high school friend group would be my forever friend group, however far-flung we ended up in our college years and beyond. That does become reality for some people. For me, a big of my friend group still is close (that's partially because a bunch of them are in a Christian cult, but hey, I guess that works for them), but I only stay in touch with a couple people from back then.

The characters in (S)KiDS, by the end, seem to understand that they might not always be together, might not always be tight, but they leave open the possibility of finding each other down the road. That's a beautiful thing, pretty rare, I think.

Set in 1993 in a picturesque suburbia called Champion City (the reverse of the welcome sign reads, bluntly, "You're fucked"), Scotty is a high school senior known by his old friends as the Punk Poet for the sensitive writing about music he does. Not reviews, per se, more like ramblings of the soul, pure reactions to what he hears and likes, and doesn't like. He's got spiky red hair an an asshole sheriff for a dad, and he hates that he's been plopped into this bland town for his senior year.

But he quickly falls in with a group called the (S)KiDS, a group of punk kids who live by a few simple rules: think independently, don't leave each other behind, stick it to authority, and do what's right. It's the kind of ethos that feels so clear-cut and imminently doable when you're young and disillusioned, and right and wrong feel so obvious it's maddening to see other people just going with the flow of society. These are good guys, cool guys, who maybe don't exactly fit in at their square Catholic school (St. Elmo's), but mostly manage to keep their heads down. Occasional disruptions to class be damned.

Senior year brings with it tensions within friendships, violence between groups, attempts at love and finding deeper meaning. It's rough going sometimes, but worth going. You gotta follow the broken road despite the cracks and obstacles; it's worth it. Beyond the usual, expected troubles of high school, this movie gets into some harder, darker territory, too. It ends up touching on a specific real-world issue that has been an ugly mark on Canada's history that I was surprised to see here, but is handled with care, and certainly makes sense as an affront to the (S)KiDS' worldview.

The animation is very cool. The characters are attractively rough-hewn. Their lines are a little sketchy, their movements a bit jerky. Very punk-rock. They stand in stark contrast to their environments, which sometimes look borderline photo-realistic, sometimes a bit more painterly and abstract. There are some really nice moments of kaleidoscopic and otherwise-trippy embellishments that punctuate some of the film's most emotional and impactful moments. I especially loved a scene where two characters have sex together for the first time, where they're depicted with more sketch lines, the skeletal beginning shapes of a drawing, an evocative way to show that they're baring more of themselves, being more vulnerable in that moment. It's a really beautiful choice.

I loved the music here, too. This thing is absolutely packed with songs. Pretty much wall-to-wall. Some are used for character development, some for exposition, some are basically dialogue exchanges. It really feels like a concept album come to life, coursing with angst and anger and confusion and all the other emotions that make that time of life feel so vivid, so massive, so forever. The songs are catchy, too, a lot of them built with the kind of chanting choruses that have you singing along by the second time they come around. I didn't know Rare Americans before this, but I do now, and I can't wait to listen to more of their music, and to add this soundtrack to my library whenever it drops.

This is the kind of indie animated project I love: a strong point of view, great presentation, a specific setting, a good sense of humor (a late-breaking Les Mis reference just about took me out). It feels authentic its it vision and its passion. Just really fucking cool stuff. Easily worth your time.

(S)KiDS had its world premiere at Annecy earlier this year, and has been on the festival circuit since. Next up, it has its North American premiere at Vancouver-based Spark Animation 2024 on November 2 at 9:00pm.