In the pantheon of teen comedy classics, the Bill & Ted series is a bit of an enigma. The first installment Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure was largely dismissed upon release and faced middling reviews. The Breakfast Club it certainly was not. And it’s not particularly hard to see why as the film’s baseline conceit of two highschool airheads traveling through time to pass their history exam feels more akin to something you’d watch in a 7th grade social studies class than for fun at the theater. The film ultimately is dumber and much more idiosyncratic than ever could have been anticipated. These two airheads rock out across time and space, wooing medieval ‘babes,’ escaping an execution, and teaming-up with Billy The Kid in a saloon brawl. It’s wild stuff that never once goes for anything but the silliest gag it can and the film is all the better for it.
While other teen comedies of the time were building out the template for the genre for years to come, Bill & Ted defied replication. It was wholly original and the kind of classic that takes time to become one as each new generation pops it on for the first time and realizes how excellent it really is. Tack on a critically lambasted sequel that is actually a stealth masterpiece and you’ve got the perfect foundation for a trilogy.
Which brings us here.
After 29 years, Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter have plugged their air guitars back in and are ready to jam for the fate of the universe once again. Their return was inevitable, but what no one could have predicted is just how smooth the transition back would be. Even with Keanu Reeves having become a bonafide action superstar and Alex Winter an acclaimed documentarian operating mostly behind the camera, the two slip back into their roles as Ted and Bill with such ease and comfort, it’s hard not to feel giddy watching. Their infectious energy hasn’t gone anywhere and the history they share, both textually and off-screen, couldn’t be more apparent. That being said, 55-year-old men strumming at the air and calling things “bogus” and “bodacious” isn’t nearly as charming as teenagers in the ‘80s and the film is keenly aware of that. From the jump it becomes clear that the protagonists are locked in a sort of arrested development and codependency that even extends to their other relationships. The two also have daughters now, played to perfection by Samara Weaving and Brigette Lundy-Paine, who echo the spirit of the original Bill and Ted and want to follow in their footsteps, but also recognize that they need help to finally grow up. It is done so lovingly and serves as a reminder of the exuberance and unabashed love for all that life can be, but also the trouble we can have when we find ourselves out of step with time.
When Bill and Ted were teenagers, they were told they’d change the universe by writing a song to unite it, only to have achieved stardom and never write that song, leading that universe to leave them behind. To be loved and then forgotten, not knowing what you could’ve done to prevent it, would leave anyone shell shocked and in a state of developmental permanence, continuing to act like that person that was once beloved. The gag of Face the Music is that they haven’t changed at all and for the sake of pleasing fans, they can’t change because that’d muck up the formula. What’s so subtly genius then about this film is that it finds real thematic footing in that fan obligation and makes something unique of it. In a long line of legacy sequels, remakes, and reboots, the absolute hardest part is proving the need for your existence. Yes, you can make Bill & Ted Face the Music, but should you? Do you need to?
In Excellent Adventure and Bogus Journey, thematic intent and depth were always put on the backburner, with a focus on fun and Bill and Ted’s need to prove themselves to be more than airheads. Face the Music faces that same task, only this time on a metatextual level, doing this by pointing inwards and showing that all Bill and Ted ever wanted was to prove to themselves that they were what the universe wanted— and needed— them to be. Their daughters Billie and Thea, as well as being hilarious and perfectly in-tune with the spirit of Bill and Ted, serve as a reminder to those fans of the original that you can play the hits and reminisce on what was, or you can hand off the air guitar to someone else and maybe… they can save the universe.
That’d be most excellent.
