Facing the Music Has Never Been As Fun as in Bill & Ted Face the Music
Nothing can change how terrible this year has been so far, but Bill & Ted Face the Music is a wonderful distraction with a powerful message for the future. Despite the original film having goofy escapades with friends, time travel, and general tomfoolery, it wasn’t until I was in college that I watched Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure for the first time. Obviously, I adored it both as a time capsule of the 80s and as a memory of the joyful science fiction that seems to have been lost in recent years. It’s a fantastic film that still holds up to the test of time, and it and Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey give the most recent film enormous shoes to fill.
Going into Bill & Ted Face the Music I expected mainly a good laugh and more irreverent time traveling. It’s safe to say that it exceeded all of my expectations. Despite the fact that both Bill (Alex Winter) and Ted (Keanu Reeves) are both adults with wives and children, they are just as gloriously stupid as they were in high school. In today’s climate, one might call them himbos: men who are attractive but perhaps not the brightest. I mean this as a perfect complement, because in addition to that – honestly, superseding that – a himbo is supposed to be kind. This combination of the honesty they portray and the general bewilderment the duo experiences invokes the feeling that this is the most genuine version of older Bill and Ted that there could be.
The introduction of their daughters Billie (Brigette Lundy-Paine) and Thea (Samara Weaving) was a genius move that was both hilarious through the brilliance of their performances as well as the sheer excellence of the characters themselves. For example, Lundy-Paine and Weaving mastered the mannerisms of Winter’s Bill and Reeves’ Ted, echoing their influences on Billie and Thea in almost invisible yet incredibly potent ways. But despite being cookie-cutter replicas of their fathers, they really aren’t, and that’s where their greatest strength lies. They’ve retained all of the kindness that made their fathers so likable, adding in the process what I believe to be a greater knowledge of music history and perhaps better ears for music.
Speaking of daughters, Rufus’ daughter Kelly (Kristen Schaal) truly stole the show at times. Although she is the daughter of Rufus, who was originally played by the late George Carlin, she carries the mantle of an older generation in a very different way than the relationship between Billie & Thea and Bill & Ted. She stands for what she thinks is right, and while a great part of that is because of her adoration of her father and what he wanted, it takes immense courage to stand up to your own mother to do so. Luckily, Schaal plays it like the teenager who is sick and tired of their mother telling them what to do and interfering in their love life. In more ways than one, the fate of the universe relies on the decisions of overgrown teenagers.
Every actor involved in this production gave a truly fantastic performance, and the care and research that went into them was evident. I mean, I had no idea what to expect from Kid Cudi but I couldn’t imagine the story without him. There were three main storylines occurring simultaneously throughout the timelines with different sets of characters that all came together seamlessly to make a coherent and rather hole-proof narrative. However, what is most powerful about this movie is, for their himbo antics, the titular Bill and Ted do mature. They have always been excellent to each other and to the world, except perhaps Death, which leads the world to be excellent to them. I would hate to spoil so powerful a moment, but their journey brings real change to them and their family as well as the entire universe.
Bill & Ted Face the Music is somehow a coming of age story about two grown men and their still-grown-but-younger daughters. It will make you laugh. It will make you cry. And maybe, it will make you hope.
Indira Ramgolam is a Culture writer and sophomore at Columbia College.
