THE ELECTRO-ROCKER | Omeleto Comedy

A teenager meets a rocker.


Jamie is a teenager who doesn’t fit in at his school. No one is into the heavy metal music that he loves, and though he plays bass, he’s too shy to play music with the intimidatingly cool band at his school. And he can’t summon up the courage to talk to his crush, much less ask her out.

But then Jamie’s phone gets zapped as part of a freak electrical accident during a storm, and as the electricity combines with the music on his device, it creates a new "friend" for Jamie: an 80s-style metal rocker made of electricity who follows him around, singing inspiring songs tailored just for him. With the Electro-Rocker’s help, Jamie finds himself taking more risks and changing his life, though not without some new challenges to face.

Directed and written by Chris Edgar (who also wrote all the music), this short comedy musical is equal parts quirky hair metal tribute and relatable coming-of-age story, with a dash of affectionate nostalgia and surprising emotional insight. It has plenty of hard rock power anthems, but the real driver of the storytelling’s momentum is Jamie‘s quest to believe in himself and gain some confidence in his life.

We first meet Jamie in his milieu, teased by his classmates, and too shy to talk to his crush or talk to a band he wants to join, all relayed in naturalistic, muted and melancholic visuals. What emerges is how shy and apprehensive Jamie is, which confines him to life on the sidelines. But Jamie’s life gets a literal jolt when a storm surges power into his phone, and like a genie coming out of his bottle, the Electro-Rocker emerges, a being made of electric energy and digital music, ready to rock Jamie into a more confident phase of his life and propel the film into a brighter, more comedic register.

The Electro-Rocker’s superpower is his steady stream of inspiring songs, tailor-made for whatever Jamie is feeling or experiencing, and much of the humor comes from this “metal rocker as life coach” premise. The Electro Rocker's songs are relentless in both their riffs and their positivity, but after initial resistance, Jamie takes the advice to heart and begins putting himself out there.

As Jamie, actor Alejandro Fuenzalida is generally understated, provided a skeptical foil to actor Jacob Alden Roa's flamboyant performance as the Electro-Rocker. Roa really goes for it, his forcefully goofy energy propelling Jamie to transcend his shyness and take more risks. Things begin looking up for Jamie, but despite all the Electro-Rocker's confidence-building jams, it still doesn't protect Jamie from life's vagaries, and he has to go deeper within himself to find resilience.

Silly, entertaining and fun, THE ELECTRO-ROCKER doesn't take itself too seriously, and should appeal to fans of 80s comedy cult classics like Mannequin or Weird Science, where the humor is mixed with a dose of the outlandish. But underneath the teased hair and the bombast of power chords, there's a genuine emotional sincerity that's winning and even insightful about the limits of "positivity." Instead, true growth comes when Jamie learns to sit with his difficult emotions, experiencing disappointment and doubt, and then learns to pick himself back up and move forward, with or without an inspirational power ballad. That's just life, and as another wise character in the film sagely counsels, "Nobody became a metal god sulking in their bedroom."


THE ELECTRO-ROCKER. Courtesy of Chris Edgar at https://cedgarmusic.com.