Troop Zero; Little Miss Sunshine and Moonrise Kingdom Vibes in the Dirty South. Grade: B+

Troop Zero tells a story about a young elementary school girl named Christmas Flint (McKenna Grace) whom lost her mother and loves the idea of outer space. One day up on a tree, she tuned into a Girl Scout discussion with ties with NASA, as whomever wins the Jamboree gets to be recorded on NASA’s Golden Record. Christmas gets really excited, as she plans to form her own Girl Scout Troop, so she can compete as well. Witness a band of misfits surge to win badges and compete to achieve a dream.

The Cinematography t’was lovely, reminds me of Wes Anderson’s Moonrise Kingdom in a way, as far as costume design and sets go. The Score was solid, followed by some nice oldies tunes. The cast all in all was very enjoyable as a whole. McKenna Grace playing the lead Christmas Flint played a pretty good performance, Christmas Flint is an extremely enjoyable main character. Though she is an outcast towards the other Troops, she strives to achieve her dream in contacting those in NASA, as she forms a bunch of other outcasts whom don’t fit in society as well. Viola Davis playing Miss Rayleen t’was pretty good as well, played a nice mother figure towards the little girls and young gentleman of Troop Zero. Jim Gaffigan playing Christmas’ father t’was solid, although I found the character to be quite underwhelming till the very end at least. He just comes and goes, as we don’t know much about him. Allison Janney playing the antagonist of the film t’was pretty good, I disliked this character in a good way as an effective antagonist. She was upper class when it comes towards the Troop Scouts, so she just looked down on Troop Zero and Miss Rayleen for daring to be in the same presence at them.

I do have some flaws with Troop Zero. The ending was very delightful and sweet, however there is one moment where you scratch your head at a couple moments. Like the Troop theme song played in the end... They’re all a bunch of hypocrites. Every single troop member that wasn’t the Troop performing, was treated disrespectfully, called terrible names, as they heckled the living shit out of them. In this theme song they talk about respecting others and being nice to others... Well how come the leader on any Troop didn’t enforce those characteristic traits, when this Troop was treated extremely poorly?! The fact they performed that theme song after that travesty is a complete joke, if I was a parent of one of the troop scouts, I run up the stage and cuss everyone out. Which reminds me: Why didn’t the leader of the Troop Community say or do nothing?! You would think that a leader, of a heavily respected organization would actually step up and be a leader, but no she just let it happen. She’s lucky there were no smart phones or Twitter during this time, because she would’ve stepped down right away after the BackLash. Couple confusing moments in this film. There’s one occurrence where Troop Zero gets punished, for partaking in a fight... But suddenly that suspension is lifted, once they got the last badge needed to compete?! How did this suspension get lifted so fast?! Was it just a day suspension? I don’t see any point in ordering a suspension, when it literally had no effect on Troop Zero, other than the baking badge. So when Troop Zero gets the funds to compete, I can’t help but think... Does it really take a Girls Scout organization, to make people pay their rent?! It’s a heart warming scene indeed, but sheesh this what it takes for them pay up?!

Troop Zero feels heavily inspired by Moonrise Kingdom and Little Miss Sunshine, as far as costume design, the bright yellow title sequence and the tone of the film, and of course the epic finale. That being said: I really enjoyed Troop Zero, I think it’s a lovely feel good film. It teaches others that dreams can not be achieve by doing it all on yourself, it takes teamwork to get there. The story itself was very entertaining, filled with laughter, joy, and heart felt drama as well. The comedy material t’was well written, there are many solid sequences of comedic moments that really work. I found the characters to be quite delightful to watch, especially the Troop of Misfits. The epic finale.... Gross, however I can’t help but laugh and just feel good for these young kids. It’s a reminder that you should never feel ashamed of being yourself, despite others make you feel shameful and uncomfortable of being yourself. Just be proud of whom you are and live life to the fullest... Very nice.

Overall, Troop Zero is a pretty good film. I highly recommend checking this one out on Amazon Prime, this is nice during these depressing quarantine times. Now if you excuse me: I’m going to start a Petition on Change, to eliminate every single Troop other than Troop Zero. -Mitch Smietana