I thought this was pretty generic. Better than Frenemies and infintely better than what the promos suggested it would be, but still generic. We had the socially awkward main heroine and her bland boy musician Love Interest, who both want to be free to be the "real them": I feel like I've seen this on the Disney Channel before. We also had the girl's flighty best friend, the pointless comic relief duo, the Alpha Bitch who's eventually shown to be more sympathetic in the end (and this one didn't have a detailed reason to be sympathetic), the goofy girl sidekick to the Alpha Bitch, the Poisonous Friend of the love interest, and the over-the-top eeeevil authority figure who's "evil" for being a pretty lousy authority figure. The writing also suffered from way too many informed statements of how great and life changing Radio Rebel's speeches really were. I think what's worst is that the book this film was based on (called Shrinking Violet) was apparently much different aside from the basic premise. Disney instead turned it into a typical "Be Yourself, reject the status quo, do what you want to do" story centering around a misunderstood poet against the "evil" establishment.
On a more positive note, Debby Ryan was pretty good in her role, and the Love Interest character did redeem himself by being the dancing Turkey-on-Rye sandwich guy. Now THAT was a twist!
What's interesting is that everything you say is somewhat true..yet, I somehow disagree, as I really liked it. For whatever reason,. most of those elements ended up working and most of it feels genuine. Some of the cliches are either pulled off okay or subverted.
But I do feel the love interest was only okay. Not as bad as some other movies, but he mostly works for how ties into Tara's stuff, not him himself. I also too felt the princpcal was very THISISMOSTUNORTHODOX and at times i was like "Geez, calm down". I think the rushed Alpha bitch turns good bit and the love interest, were the only two elements i admit are not that great.
(Mostly when Comapred with Debby's other film, 16Wishes which really did something new with both of those, mostly.
I may write my own revie later to go deeper, but I'll say i didn't feel it was as generic as you claim, as I mostly agree with the OP here, as Tara's stuff was really interesting and made the movie. And this isn't my Debby Ryan fanboy speaking this time.
If anything, this one of the most interesting DCOM's in recent years...but I perfer a few others./
(Also, this is not one of the better uses of the I'M SPARTACUS thing. From the way Tara built it up, it should have been obvious who the real RR is and that the other kids were just pulling their leg)
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Decidedly Better Than It Sounds
I wasn't really sure what to expect when I watched this. As anyone who regularly watches Disney Channel knows, some of their DCOMs have been...well...disasters. This was definitely not one of those. I was impressed by the all-around Character Development in this show, especially Tara's evolution from a Shrinking Violet who hides behind a microphone to a confident girl who brings out the best in everyone around her. The Be Yourself aesop that the story was trying to present is a tough one to execute without the film looking stupid, Narmy, or Anvilicious, but I thought this film managed it beautifully.
The only thing that really bugged me is the same thing that bugs me about most films set in Seattle: The fact that they used a Canadian city as a double for it. As a proud Seattleite, I happen to think this is a beautiful city with some great locations. Granted, filming rights here are a bit expensive, but it would be totally worth the cost.
Overall rating: 9.5/10