‘Egghead & Twinkie’ Is A Colorful Queer Road Trip
The queer coming-of-age comedy "Egghead & Twinkie" gains much of its quirky appeal from a kicky soundtrack and cool animation.
Her parents call her Vivian, but she won’t stand for anyone else calling her that. She’s Twinkie, a 17-year-old, self-described “master of sarcasm” just poking her head out of the closet in writer-director Sarah Kambe Holland’s engaging autobiographical debut feature, Egghead & Twinkie.
Based on Holland’s eponymous 2019 short, the feature re-teams Sabrina Jie-A-Fa as baby dyke Twinkie and Louis Tomeo as straight dude Egghead, Twinkie’s best friend since fourth grade, when his family moved in across the street.
Now the pair are wading into their last summer together in the Florida burbs before Egghead heads to Stanford to study engineering, leaving Twinkie at home still figuring herself out. She’s already figured out that she doesn’t want to be like her conservative, yet separated, adoptive Mom (Kelley Mauro) and Dad (J. Scott Browning).
Also, Twinkie knows she wants to be an animator, but she’s not sure how she’ll make that happen. The movie takes her passion as a prompt to fill the screen with lively animation — graphics, characters, text, and thought bubbles — that express her artistry, and add verve and color to the otherwise flat lighting and camerawork.
The cool 2D animation and rotoscoped anime, created by Dillon Cefalo and Dustin Wisch, combined with vibrant production and costume design, and the pop-punk soundtrack, lend the movie a fun, energetic atmosphere for a coming-out, coming-of-age adventure that also dips into teenage angst and disillusion.
When Twinkie enlists Egghead to drive her across several states to meet up with her enigmatic online girl crush, a club DJ named BD (Ayden Lee), their impromptu road trip leads them, of course, to the land of self-discovery. They will discover, for one thing, what comes after Egghead confesses he’s in love with Twinkie, an unfortunate complication in their 500-mile trek to meet the girl of her dreams.
The straight guy-loves-his-lesbian-bestie storyline might have hit a roadblock were it not for the perceptive portrayal of the pair’s friendship and the winning chemistry between Jie-A-Fa and Tomeo.
Tomeo especially is solid, delineating the personality of smart, sensitive, but still, at times, selfish Egghead, who apparently, lots of their peers believe is gay. Maybe he is. The film drops hints in different directions, while generally leaning towards the likely proposition that he’s just a not-macho straight guy, and his best friend is a girl who happens to be a lesbian.
They get each other, and they make each other laugh. What else matters? The movie’s humor might not always get that job done for the audience, though Tomeo tends to better channel the attempts at madcap comedy. And, for a rambling road trip romp, surprisingly few of the supporting characters they encounter make much comedic impact, beyond Roger Greco as tenacious diner owner Bob, who has ways of making dine-and-dashers pay.
In the lead, Jie-A-Fa certainly captures Twinkie’s defiant spirit and sardonic demeanor, though the disaffected Daria monotone does feel one-note. Most importantly, her performance registers the emotional distance Twinkie travels.
In Twinkie’s endearing quest to know herself, she constantly has to fight for the space to not have her identity foisted upon her by her parents, and even her best friend. She laments that “Everyone thinks they know me better than I do,” a relatable adolescent gripe about the pressure from people trying to tell her who she is.
But, as it would be for anyone, it’s Twinkie’s right to claim her identity for herself, and, as the film depicts with sensitivity and intelligence, it ultimately will be up to her whether she truly finds herself or gets lost along the way.
Egghead & Twinkie (★★☆☆☆) is available on April 29 to rent or purchase on Apple, Amazon, Google, YouTube, Vudu, Direct TV, and through local cable providers.
Support Metro Weekly’s Journalism
These are challenging times for news organizations. And yet it’s crucial we stay active and provide vital resources and information to both our local readers and the world. So won’t you please take a moment and consider supporting Metro Weekly with a membership? For as little as $5 a month, you can help ensure Metro Weekly magazine and MetroWeekly.com remain free, viable resources as we provide the best, most diverse, culturally-resonant LGBTQ coverage in both the D.C. region and around the world. Memberships come with exclusive perks and discounts, your own personal digital delivery of each week’s magazine (and an archive), access to our Member's Lounge when it launches this fall, and exclusive members-only items like Metro Weekly Membership Mugs and Tote Bags! Check out all our membership levels here and please join us today!
You must be logged in to post a comment.