My Best Worst Adventure Review
Mother of Movies doesn’t generally watch movies aimed at children. Especially ones that follow kids on an “adventure” or something similar. However, I was caught off guard by clickbait to the tune of ‘My Best Worst Adventure’ a film by the producer of Bill and Teds Excellent Adventure. Joel Soisson is better known for his horror movies; Children of the Corn: Genesis and Pulse 2 and 3. What’s more, is that My Best Worst Adventure has been around since 2015 under the title of Buffalo Rider. I have been told that the film has been overhauled and re-released in 2021 as a separate film.
Nonetheless, I watched it unwittingly thinking this film would somehow be some kind of extension of the premise of Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure. It isn’t. Or perhaps the storyline would be like those gender-swap remakes filmmakers do on occasion (He’s All That VS She’s All That, for example.) I’m unsure if it’s a good thing or a bad thing and this is not the case either.
My Best Worst Adventure is a kind of sweet, kind of confused drama-adventure movie. The film begins and ends with one girl’s coming-of-age journey after the death of her mother. Jenny is rebellious, sullen, moody, and more importantly, refuses to speak. Her mother and father, a bi-racial couple had been living in the USA, however, after her mother dies and Jenny’s sudden onset of muteness, she is sent to rural Thailand to visit with family and attend school there for the summer.
My Best Worst Adventure
The storyline follows the basic format of any teen-angst drama. Bullies who get a dose of their own medicine. A father in debt to locals who tries to beat compliance into his son. The underdog trying to win back something he loves in a competition set for sabotage. All the components of mainstream after-school specials, are encased in a world cinema film.
What does work for the film, besides the spectacular landscape, is the movie chooses its heroes in a slightly more unconventional way. Jenny meets her soulmate after being bullied by a gang of kids. He too refuses to speak. They unite after Jenny comes to blows with the leader of the bullies which allows for a white flag to be raised. Both Jenny and Boonrod connect through their own individual responses to the trauma they have gone through. Jenny’s inherited from darkness takes her mother and Boonrods through a violent upbringing and destitute family.
Their refusal to speak gives way to a more visual approach to storytelling and one that is effective at that. Language barriers are overcome, and cultural differences aside, and the two children find closure in destroying the demons that appear as hallucinations and dreams. Together they bond with Boonrods pet Buffalo and when the life of his beloved animal is threatened they come up with a way to try and get him back.
Mixed Messages
On the negative side, My Best Worst Adventure has lots of important life lessons often shielded by inconsistent background characters. I had issues with a few of the plot points used to spur the story along. Boonrod’s background was of particular concern, in that his father gambled away their families’ money to the point of destitution. He was beaten so badly for simply trying to get by, he had scars on his back. The storyline failed to follow this through with any accountability and instead forces the audience to look at factors through his father’s eyes. The film then uses the idea of not whipping his buffalo to win the race as an opportunity to succeed. Mixed messages if you ask me. Or perhaps a message about being more successful if someone isn’t whipping you?
My Best Worst Adventure is available to watch from 1st September 2021 as a digital download from KDMG. I’m not sure what the appropriate audience for this would be tough. I guess, watch it for some interesting imagery and a dynamic buffalo race. Produced by Road-Dawg Films. So far, the film is available only as a rental on Vimeo in the USA.
I give My Best Worst Adventure
1.5 buffalos run faster with love out of 5
