Egghead & Twinkie embraces the classic teen road trip movie, while bathing us in primary colours and the gorgeous animation of Jill Cefalo-Sanders and Dustin Wisch, resulting in a delightful mash-up of Heartstopper meets John Hughes. Egghead & Twinkie is showing at BFI Flare on Thursday, 16th, Saturday, 18th, and Sunday, 26th of March.
Egghead (Louis Tomeo) and Twinkie (Sabrina Jieafa) are childhood best friends. Twinkie is resilient, adventurous and incredibly cool, while Egghead is intelligent, loving and sharp. However, even the closest friends don’t share everything with each other. Egghead has long hidden his romantic feelings for Twinkie, while Twinkie has hidden her feelings for girls from Egghead. Neither has ever opened up to the other, as they know these secrets could change everything!
But sometimes, change is unavoidable. As he prepares to leave for college, Egghead has decided it’s time to show Twinkie the love he has kept hidden through a trip to the cinema and a nervous kiss over popcorn. Twinkie isn’t prepared for this and quickly avoids the embrace and the deflated Egghead’s desires; after all, her heart lies with a mysterious online girl named B.D., a club DJ in Dallas, Texas.
Twinkie’s parents, who adopted her at a young age, think she is romantically attached to Egghead, and her estate agent dad seems to lack any understanding of just how confusing her life currently is! Therefore, following another row at the dinner table, Twinkie persuades Egghead to go on one last road trip using her father’s car. The trouble is, Twinkie hasn’t exactly been honest with Egghead about the destination, her online affair with B.D., or the fact that they have no money and are borrowing her dad’s car, without permission.
Writer and director Sarah Kambe Holland’s road trip movie is a pure delight. By mixing laugh-out-loud comedy with vibrant cinematography, animation, outstanding performances, and a discussion on cultural heritage, Egghead & Twinkie transcends simple labels to become something wonderfully fresh in the landscape of modern LGBTQIA+ filmmaking. Here, ‘coming out’ carries multiple layers of meaning. For example, Egghead comes out as loving Twinkie before coming out again as a queer ally, and Twinkie not only comes out as a lesbian but also as a strong and proud Asian American woman who is ready to rediscover her cultural roots.
Egghead & Twinkie started its life as a short film in 2019, and there is always a risk in expanding a short into a feature-length story. Thankfully, Sarah Kambe Holland avoids the potential pitfalls through a brilliantly sharp screenplay and the outstanding performances of Sabrina Jieafa and Louis Tomeo.
Embracing the classic teen road trip movie, while bathing us in primary colours and the gorgeous animation of Jill Cefalo-Sanders and Dustin Wisch, Kambe Holland’s movie is a delightful mash-up of Heartstopper and John Hughes that has carved a special little place in my heart, so much so that I didn’t want to say goodbye as this delightful indie road trip came to an end.
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