Only child Tom (Nicholas Galitzine), a teen with a self-harming habit, lives with his Christian mum (Lisa Dillon) and practises the guitar in secret because he’s too shy to perform in front of anyone. When washed-up rock star Steve (Beverly Hills, 90210’s Luke Perry) moves in incognito downstairs, Tom pesters him into becoming a musical mentor so he can compete in an upcoming music competition. It would be easier to forgive the corny, sub-Grange Hill cliches in writer-director John Williams’s script if the actual music, on whose excellence the whole thing depends, was credibly catchy and not derivative tosh. And it doesn’t help that all the leads apart from Perry (a fun choice for a jaded has-been) are so unconvincingly cast. Lead Galitzine, with his bee-stung mouth, is far too pretty to be school outcast, for example. Altogether too many duff notes.
