My Best Worst Adventure (2021) Film Review
In the vast sea of commercial and mainstream cinema, family friendly films are not very common outside the walls of what major studios have to offer.
It could be that they’re stories that are not easy to tell. Or perhaps not everyone is willing to shed budget on films that aren’t as commercially viable. The weird thing is animated films seem to come out of nowhere, and they almost always depict extremely fictional stories that are set on a human scale of emotions.
Films like My Best Worst Adventure aren’t as important as your next big Disney project. In fact they can’t even be compared in terms of story. But this afternoon, as I sat watching the project by Joel Soisson I felt as part of something that should be celebrated more often. It’s not only a coming-of-age story that works. It’s also a raw and funny exploration of a different culture. And learning about those should be more frequent.
In My Best Worst Adventure, we meet Jenny, a girl whose mom has recently passed away. She’s become bitter, almost aggressive with her stepfather who ultimately decides to send her to Thailand for the summer. It’s her mother’s home country and she practically knows nothing about it.
Jenny is received by her grandmother who knows no English at all. Language is the first barrier, but then when Jenny starts going to school things get worse. She gets bullied, along with another student who she connects with. That other other student is Boonrod, a mute boy whose father is an unemployed alcoholic. Boonrod only likes to be with his pet buffalo and his dog.
Both begin a friendship that leads to a clash between classes in the annual buffalo race. But this race is about more than just winning, and they will find out the hard way.
My Best Worst Adventure begins with a typical depiction of the spoiled brat whose iPad runs out of power in the middle of nowhere and there’s not an adapter in sight. Fortunately, it doesn’t stay there in that formula we all know of. It goes beyond a simple character that learns something along the way. It’s about that way.
Soisson writes and directs a film about a culture in Thailand we know very little of. Poverty and class seem to be a decisive element in progress in this part of the country. But it’s through Soisson’s vision that we go further than just a social comment. Elements of tradition and history are well explored in the endearing story of Jenny looking to the past her mother wasn’t able to tell her about.
In a crucial third act, the film enters a more dynamic narrative and depicts a race that’s brutal and emotional. We’re beyond Jenny’s struggle by this moment and yet the movie ends up being a lovely portrayal of maturity during chaos. Lily Patra as Jenny is wonderful in the film, and she made me believe in this story that didn’t need a big studio name to make my day better.
