Being ourselves around the ones we love is essential. but it can be tricky. Crossing the threshold from being a teenager to an adult causes everyone to stumble. Sarah Kambe Holland’s Egghead & Twinkie is many things–road trip comedy, coming-of-age tale–but its springy writing and game cast solidify it as a worthy story of finding yourself.
Despite her parents trying to call her Vivian (her given name), Sabrina Jieafa’s character insists on going by a reclaimed racial slur: Twinkie. Her best friend, Egghead (Louis Tomeo) drives her everywhere she needs to go, and he is worried that she will be all alone when he attends Stanford in the fall. Even though these two are closer than anyone can be, they are each hiding a secret from one another: Egghead is in love with Twinkie, but she is in love with BD, a DJ who just happens to be another girl.
After a date between the two goes horribly wrong, the best friends set out on a road trip to Texas with Twinkie telling Egghead that she is going to visit a prominent animation program for college. He goes along with it partly because he is in love with her but also because he is worried of how she will fare without him. It’s a last high school hurrah before both teens enter the terrifying world of adulthood.
Holland’s film utilizes bits and pieces of animation that some are comparing to Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, but colorful spurts in Egghead & Twinkie are deeply rooted in Twinkie’s psyche. It emphasizes her insecurity and anxiety, but it remains a comical tool throughout the film, especially when Twinkie is reluctant to open up.
Tomeo and Jieafa possess a natural, loose chemistry with one another, but that pointiness comes in handy when one is needling the other or when they are attempting to yank the truth from the other. A lot goes unsaid between best friends, and these two charismatic performers clearly bring an unspoken language to their performances that I found quite delightful.
On the surface, Egghead & Twinkie could have been a run-of-the-mill story of friendship, but it also delves into the importance of identity and how allies sometimes have a personal and tumultuous relationship towards acceptance. This one’s a winner.
Egghead & Twinkie will premiere at Outfest in-person on July 21 at DGA’s Theater Two.
