Movie Review: COAST – Choices and Regrets.

Coming of age stories have this interesting way of reminding you or your youth and the choices that you made. When good enough, they are the perfect trigger for a proper introspection for any young adult.

‘COAST’ tells a coming-of-age story not too far or different from many that we have seen. It is a simple story about youthful exuberance, struggle, family and choices.

The film set along California’s central coast is about Abby (Fatima Ptacek) a teenager who is desperate to escape everything about the small coastal town in which she had spent her entire life. She is a music lover and enjoys the company of her friends any chance she gets. She befriends, Kristi (Mia Rose Frampton) a wild carefree teenager girl who is all about breaking rules and enjoy life as it is. Abby starts to rebel against her single mother who is reeling off a bad break up with her father.

For Abby, the town has nothing to offer her. There are no prospects that excites her and she doesn’t see here future being stuck along the coast. Then she means, Dave (Kane Richotte), a good-looking young man who is the front man for a punk band on tour passing through town for a few days. They hit it off almost immediately, with her love for music and aspirations of someday being a singer herself, she sees Dave as her escape from this place that she hates.

But Dave really doesn’t have much to give her and ends up breaking her heart.

As much as Abby wants to leave, she starts to recognize and appreciate all that she would be leaving behind. Family, friends and the safety and familiarity that she seems to have grown out of.

Abby’s dad got his secretary pregnant and got kicked out by her mum. So, she resents him and avoids him as much as she can.  But you it’s not really clear why she is rebellious towards her mother who is only concerned about her happiness. But Abby just can’t seem to relate with her. She relies more on and focuses on her friends then her mother who needs her the most at this point. And this is something a lot of teenagers do.

The story that ‘COAST’ tells feels as though it could be from any time or era. It isn’t distinct to just present day or just ‘GEN Z’ youth. You could almost say it is timeless. But it is also honest and relatable even for adults. Even with a story is familiar as this you can’t say it is cliche.

The film does not only look good visually. The soundtrack is perfect. There are several good selections of music either being played or performed by the characters. Dave’s band is a delight to watch even if you end up no liking the character by the time the film ends.

Will Abby be able to live with the choices she makes, or will she fold other the pressures and live an adult life full of regrets?

I would score this film 6.5/10. Overall ‘COAST’ is a very well-made movie. It is not exactly anything new we haven’t seen before, but it is a story well told and well-acted. You can tell that every single detail needed for this film was given the right attention. It has as decent cinematic look and feel to make it a great audiovisual experience worth your while.

COAST will be available for streaming on Apple, Amazon, and Vudu starting April 8th 2022.