Parents' Guide to

No Alternative

By Brian Costello, Common Sense Media Reviewer

age 17+

Drugs, sex, profanity in dark coming-of-age story.

Movie NR 2018 97 minutes
No Alternative Poster Image

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What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

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What's the Story?

In the aftermath of Kurt Cobain's suicide, high school senior Thomas Harrison starts playing drums in a band in NO ALTERNATIVE. They practice in the basement, and as the songs start coming together, Thomas is determined to make the band successful. Meanwhile, his sister Bridget, two years younger and struggling with mental illness, finds a keyboard in some bushes, takes it home, puts in some batteries, and begins recording her own music under the hip-hop alias Bri Da B. Their father (Harry Hamlin), a Republican judge, is under scrutiny and death threats after a woman suffering from bipolar disorder is found guilty of assaulting her lover, is released on bail deemed too low by the local populace, then kills her lover. He heeds the advice of law enforcement, and buys a handgun for self-defense. Their mother (Kathryn Erbe) struggles to hold the family together amid the chaos.

As Thomas's band constantly rehearses before going off to record their demo, Bridget, after a shaky start, begins to attract a cult following for her unusual performances as Bri Da B in a local coffeeshop. Thomas is starting to get more serious with the younger girl he's dating who might not be as innocent as she seems, and Bridget starts spending time with a Sarah Lawrence student who is an intellectual type obsessed with surrealism and is also a recovering alcoholic. While Bridget seems to be struggling the most--living with mental illness while growing increasingly skeptical of the medications she has been prescribed--Thomas's problems become more apparent as his problems begin to overwhelm him and his dark side begins to emerge.

Is It Any Good?

Our review:
Parents say: Not yet rated
Kids say: Not yet rated

This movie is a mixed bag. When it's good, it's very good, but when it isn't, there's a disappointment that overwhelms what's clearly a brave and earnest project. The acting across the board is incredible, fearless, and at times gut-wrenching. The tableau of '90s grunge teens smoking and drinking at parties while affecting jaded attitudes is as perfect at capturing the time as Dazed and Confused was for capturing the '70s. The politics and shifting alliances inherent in the life of a basement band shows some obvious real-life experience with trying to get a band off the ground. The movie also makes a powerful statement on the stigmatization of mental illness, and the mom's later-life realizations of the quiet desperation in John Lennon's voice in "Help!" is an incredible moment, and like much of the movie, not easily forgotten.

But as No Alternative goes on, there are parts that seem so forced and so ham-fisted, it feels like you're being manipulated. While the movie and the story are obviously so personal and mean so much to the filmmaker, there are plot points that come off as being shoehorned in to make these broader points. For instance, there's a scene in which Bridget, a white suburban teenager who starts performing as Bri Da B, an African American hip-hop persona, is called out after her performance by an African American man for her use of the "N" word in her lyrics. The scene feels like it's put in there to anticipate justifiable reactions to her use of the word. This is one of a few examples that grow in frequency as the movie progresses in which the story arc is bent to fit the message. And the ending, as messy as it seems on the surface, comes off as too neat and tidy for all the terrible things that have happened, and in terms of the music, after so much that came off as accurate, it's disappointing to feel like you're left with an origin story of rap metal.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

  • Families can talk about coming-of-age movies. How does No Alternative compare to others you've seen?

  • What were some of the ways in which the movie brought the '90s to life?

  • In one scene, a white suburban teen girl performs in her African American hip-hop persona, frequently using the "N" word in her lyrics. She is confronted by an African American man about this, and basically answers that all she's doing is copying the music she listens to. Is this a satisfactory answer that addresses the many problems of a white person using a racial slur in a performance?

Movie Details

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