Mixtape Trailer: A Rock 'N' Roll Coming-Of-Age Movie For Millennials

As any millennial or Gen X-er will tell you, a mixtape is like a message in a bottle. It transports declarations of admiration, support, torment, lust, and especially love. Its assembly is a quiet alchemy that requires precision in choosing both song and song order. If your intended recipient is a romantic interest, opening the tape with a ballad is coming on too strong; you've got to ease them in with something reflective that tells them who you are first. And so with its construction, a mixtape becomes a sacred labor of love. Just the act of making someone a mixtape is telling them that they are worth the hours it can take to compile a soundtrack — longer if you write liner notes for them. Mixtapes are meaningful.

So naturally, someone decided to tell a story about (and through) one. The '80s and '90s continue to get nostalgic love in "Mixtape," Valerie Weiss' coming-of-age comedic drama about a new girl in town, tracking down jams and navigating the ins and outs of high school in 1999. The screenplay was penned by Stacey Menear, and Gemma Brooke Allen stars in the lead role as the timid Beverly Moody. Rounding out the cast are stars Julie Bowen ("Modern Family"), Nick Thune ("The Possession of Hannah Grace"), and Jackson Rathbone (the "Twilight" films). Gil Netter and Jim Wedaa produce the film under the Netter Productions banner. Here's the synopsis:

When a young girl accidentally destroys the mixtape that belonged to her late mother, she sets out to track down each of the obscure songs on the cassette.

Check out the "Mixtape" trailer below.

As someone who was on the cusp of high school in 1999, I'm looking forward to seeing what Y2K-era relics Weiss conjures up. One of Beverly's friends (Audrey Hsieh) sports some fringed space buns and remarks that she "can't move" her hair, which tracks with the crunchy, damaged hairstyles I'd sport before I knew what leave-in conditioner was. But it doesn't appear that the movie is leaning on the nostalgia as a crutch. It feels the way it should — like an invitation to another world in another time. 

"Mixtape" star Allen is having a busy year, as well; she's also played a younger Mary Elizabeth Winstead in Cedric Nicolas-Troyan's Netflix action-drama "Kate." Allen displays that cherub-like quality that made prodigal protagonist William Miller so endearing in Cameron Crowe's "Almost Famous." We're unlikely to hear as much Led Zeppelin or "Tiny Dancer," but judging by the pic of Beverly's parents, we might get some Siouxsie and the Banshees.