Troop Zero

TROOP ZERO is currently streaming on Amazon Prime, directed by Bert & Bertie aka “The Berts” a female directing duo who seem to be kinda mum about where the name comes from. I researched two interviews with the women and they purposely didn’t answer questions about their chosen moniker.  “Troop Zero” is their first studio feature film, written by “Beast of the Southern Wild” screenwriter Lucy Alibar, and was chosen as the closing night film at Sundance 2019.

The movie stars McKenna Grace (GIFTED w/ Chris Evans) she plays Christmas Flint a 10 year-old growing up in 1977 in the small rural town of Wiggly, Georgia. She’s big into outer space and the idea of life on other planets, mainly because it was also a passion of her deceased mother, who Christmas feels is now a part of the stars and the galaxy.  But it’s not her tendency to wear a tinfoil hat that makes Christmas Flint an outcast among her peers – she denies it for most of the movie, however, the truth of the matter is the sudden death of her mother has left her with emotional distress, which shows up in her inability to sometimes control her bladder. I don’t know if it’s the case anymore, but back in my day, there was always one or two kids in your class who forever smelled like pee!  You never understood why their parents would send them to school like that.  I guess they used to take a bath at night before bed, then wet the bed and just get up in the morning and put on clothes without washing up, cause their clothes weren’t wet, and it wasn’t the ammonia smell of urine, it was that lingering smell of pee… Anyway, I digress…

The movie works in a true event, where in 1977 NASA recorded people, music, and moments of life on a golden record, which was shot out to space on a shuttle mission. I suppose in an experiment to see if any alien civilizations also invented record players, cause otherwise I don’t exactly know how the permanent record would be heard?  But at any rate, when Christmas finds out that the winners of a Girl Scout like troop, called The Birdies gets the opportunity to be included on that record, she can’t think of anything else more important.  Of course being the odd, poor, pee girl keeps her from getting into Wiggly’s chapter of The Birdies, so she decides she’s gonna start her own troop and enlists the help of her father “The Boss Man” (Jim Gaffigan) who’s anything but, reluctant assistant Miss Rayleen (Viola Davis). But first she needs to gather together some troop members, eventually ending up with a ragtag group of misfits to rival, well… , any number of movies featuring a team of quirky beings forming bonds under adverse conditions. Among Troop Zero’s ranks –  Joseph (Charlie Shotwell) a transgender kid whose father is trying to toughen him up; a rough and fierce black girl who goes by Hell-no (Milan Ray) and her equally hellraising sidekick an over-weight Latino girl called Smash (Johanna Colón), and a little white girl evangelist with one eye Anne-Claire (Bella Higginbotham).  Now it’s up to Troop Zero to find their inner talents and earn badges, allowing them to compete at the Birdie Jamboree and be heard on that record!

Okay, so it’s a familiar narrative of social outcasts banding together to stand up against the popular kids and finding a way to reject the conventions imposed on them and embrace being different.  But it’s familiar because it works and works particularly well in “Troop Zero”.  Mckenna Grace plays adorably weird so very well, she’s irresistible with her butchered haircut and optimistic spirit “Funna to Win”.

T&T LAMB rating: 3.5 outta 5