All Together Now: A Review
By: Mallory Johnson
All Together Now is a movie that recently came out on Netflix and is about “An optimistic high schooler with musical aspirations must learn to accept help from her friends to overcome her personal hardships and fulfill her dreams.” (IMDB). It stars: Auli’i Cravalho (Moana), Justina Machado (One Day at A Time), Rhenzy Feliz, and Judy Reyes. Before I go any further, I want to say that this review contains spoilers, so SPOILER ALERT.
I want to put in place some trigger warnings for: death, homelessness, theft, alcoholism, domestic violence, car crashes, drunk driving, grief, pet illness, and financial instability. Auli’i plays Amber, and the movie looks cute and fluffy at first, but there is a plot twist: Amber is homeless and lives in an old school bus with her mom and small dog. Amber has a lot of hope, which made me feel uneasy for her. Amber works like three jobs, while being in her last year of high school, which is surprising to me.
I like that Carol Burnett is also in this movie, she plays a woman named Joan at a care home that Amber works at. Joan’s line to Amber “Not if I make you cry first” sounded like foreshadowing. I loved the music in it - it added to the movie. It was clear that nobody knew they were homeless. Amber gets invited to audition for the college Carnegie Mellon, but she panics because she cannot afford to go. Amber taking her little dog with her everywhere in her pink backpack makes me think of Legally Blonde. I wanted to yell at the screen to tell Amber to take a break because she was spreading herself thin.
On top of the beautiful story being told, there is also pretty cinematography paired with good music. There is romance budding between Amber and her friend Ty, and you can tell that there are feelings. Amber singing her song Feels Like Home gave me chills, she has such a pretty voice (probably why she was in Moana). Tragedy strikes twice when Amber’s mom gets killed in a drunk driving accident and her dog gets sick. These events make her want to drop out of school and work full time, ignoring everyone telling her to think of her future.
At the end of the movie, there is a Variety Show, but it does not go as originally planned: The show is supporting Amber and her dog instead of the school’s marching band. Ty does a romantic gesture by hosting the show. I really enjoyed watching the Variety Show scene - the fundraising literally went above and beyond the goal. When it was revealed that Joan donated $200 thousand dollars, she said “I told you I would make you cry” - revealing that it was foreshadowing like I thought. At the end of the movie, Amber is moving away to college and kisses Ty goodbye - I knew they would eventually get together! I love that she still got to audition, I wish we got to see it and the results though! My overall rating is 9.5/10.