I saw Slash at BAM Cinemafest 2016 last night. It was certainly a crowd-pleaser. The story starts as "innocent, studious, repressed 15-year-old boy meets wild, unruly, sassy girl" and goes from there. It could take many directions, but it chooses a realistic, rather unsure and zigzaggy route, which reflects perfectly the confusion and indecision of the coming-of-age state. I expected the highlights to be the bad fan fic being read out loud awkwardly and the imagined sexual encounters of the burly sci-fi hero, Vanguard, but though these were all extremely hilarious and entertaining, I was surprised to find the emotional scenes about belonging, friendship, love, betrayal also vibrant and smart. The leads are great. Jessie Ennis rocks!
