Ralph Glorioso
Mixtape, an eagerly awaited coming-of-age drama, will reach your screens in just a couple of days on the 3rd of December. The movie stars Gemma Brooke Allen as 12-year-old Beverly, and Julie Bowen as the young grandmother who raised her. Directed by Valerie Weiss, who has worked on Outer Banks, a wonderful coming-of-age drama set on a fictional island on the Outer Banks of North Carolina, and Prodigal Son, a procedural drama series that stars The Walking Dead’s Tom Payne.
Netflix has made a habit of smashing the coming-of-age genre out of the park – think To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before, The Kissing Booth, and they’re known for being quite adept at nostalgia too – Stranger Things, anyone? – so we can’t wait to see what they’ve come up with.
Set in the year 1999 (so we just know it’s going to have an epic soundtrack), orphaned Beverly finds a mixtape that was made by her parents, whom she lost when she was just two years old. Unfortunately, it is damaged. She determines to find the songs from the tape, and in doing so she learns about her late parents and the music they loved.
On her journey to find songs, she strengthens her bond with her grandmother and forms new friendships with her neighbor Ellen, played by Audrey Hsieh, tough girl Nicky, played by Oga Petsa, and grumpy record-store owner Anti, played by Nick Thune.
This movie is funny and heartfelt, and sure to bring a tear to your eye this December.
