AFF 2023 Correspondence: The Egghead & Twinkie Review

I love me a road trip movie. I think a big part of it is that I just love the concept of road trips as a whole. In their own little way, these trips take on an epic feeling as you travel from one new town to another, maybe meeting new people, or maybe even facing some unseen challenges. When you add the idea of road tripping to a film, you open the gates to tons of possibilities for where the film can go, literally and metaphorically. It fits that as I glanced over the Austin Film Fest program schedule that Sarah Kambe Holland’s Egghead & Twinkie stood out as a film that I should catch, mainly because I saw the words “road” and “trip” in its brief description. During another premiere, the filmmaker labeled their film as something for Generation Z to have when it comes to the coming-of-age genre. They also revealed that this was a film pretty much crowdfunded through Generation Z-stape, TikTok. Would all of this youthful energy literally powering the production of the film burst through to the audience watching it? 

Sitting down at Galaxy Theater once more, this evergreen zap of young spirit sprinted throughout its colorful and animated introduction scene to set the table. With zippy music in the background and confidently cool narration from Twinkie (Sabrina Jie-A-Fa), the audience gets a brief rundown of our title characters. Twinkie and Egghead (Louis Tomeo) have been friends since they were little kids, brought together by their love of anime and slushies and other sorts of quirky things. Now seniors in high school, the two enter a summer of unknowns, with the looming deadline of Egghead moving off to Stanford University hanging over their heads. Hooking onto the tried-and-true trope of one of these best friends having a crush on the other, we learn Egghead has a crush on Twinkie. Little does Egghead know that Twinkie is gay and is already in the throes of an online flirtation with a super cool DJ named BD. 

In these introductory scenes, Egghead & Twinkie bursts onto the screen with a low-budget sense of sugared up energy. In a way, it felt a lot like Edgar Wright’s rambunctious Scott Pilgrim V. The World, with its frantic mix of visuals, indie-esque music choices, and general sense of youthfulness. The movie kicks into its road tripping after Twinkie tries to come out to her conservative, divorced parents. With neither of them accepting or acknowledging her announcement, Twinkie decides to say “Screw it” and takes to the road with Egghead in reluctant tow to finally meet the DJ she’s been flirting with. Traveling from Florida (though to be honest, I didn’t find out that was the start location until about midway through when I checked the license plate of the car that Twinkie and Egghead jack) to Dallas, Texas, the film fully centers on Twinkie’s own journey of self-discovery.

If that sounds pretty cliché, that’s because Egghead & Twinkie does go down some pretty familiar roads. As they travel from one small town to another, with hijinks such as dining and dashing and not knowing what boba is filling in the spaces, we get the usual friendship developments we’ve seen in other coming of age movies. We see Egghead and Twinkie joke with one another, then slowly get on each other’s nerves, followed by them blowing up at each other and separating momentarily before coming back together to get the good feelings flowing. Even Twinkie’s own personal journey of loving others and yourself follows the usual route of not judging books by their covers and taking life by the horns. Familiarity isn’t always a detriment, though. Good films usually take familiar stories and developments and support them with deep characters or unique little details. When Egghead & Twinkie enters its road trip portion, Holland simply follows the instructions for the most part. 

The biggest piece of personality that comes through is in the character of Twinkie. Even in the year of 2023, it still feels like we haven’t seen a lot of movies come in with a queer person of color as the lead. On that alone, the film stands out. Of course, Holland thankfully isn’t content with just throwing out a focus grouped main character. The writer and director genuinely tries to give Twinkie a genuine and emotional journey, finding solid ground in the Twinkie’s feelings of self-doubt and loneliness. Taking on the lead role, A-Jie does a genuinely good job keeping Twinkie grounded in a film that, at times, strives to go over the top in parts. It took a bit to really hit me how good her performance is, but in the third act, where Twinkie and Egghead both come to terms with a new future for themselves and their friendship, A-Jie and Holland bring the character home in a surprisingly subdued conversation. As her partner in crime, Tomeo’s Egghead is pretty much the clown of the two. Tomeo is certainly down to make a fool of himself on camera, but the actor overall struggles with a script that doesn’t really offer too much actually funny stuff for him to work with. I will say though, like with A-Jie, Tomeo’s Egghead gets a moment towards the end where he finally gets to be something less like a clown and more like a genuine good-hearted friend. 

As a whole, Egghead & Twinkie moves and sounds like a comedy, however, I can’t say that the film successfully lands its jokes. When it comes to the comedy found in the dialogue, a lot of the cracks are too broad and pretty childish, almost Disney-Channel level. With half of the jokes, I almost expected the character dropping it to make a face towards the camera. Other jokes simply go after low-hanging fruit in the most milquetoast way, such as a scene where a big white guy in a small town gets distracted from capturing our heroes because he, believe it or not, can’t stop getting hung up about the myth of climate change. Strangely, there are other moments in the film that show Holland is capable of viewing her story’s world with a more complex look. One example that springs to mind is when we find out a character’s true relationship motivations. Holland has the character reveal that they aren’t looking for any long-term relationships, but instead is happy to have more casual flings. While this character’s logic can be viewed as pretty shallow, the way Holland has the discussion between relationship wants and needs play out shows a surprisingly mature view of the fact that not everyone that’s just entering adulthood is looking for their one true love. Some people just want to have fun with their newfound freedom. It’s a small moment near the final act, but yet another small instance that shows that Egghead & Twinkie has a few insights into young people navigating relationships. 

It's this aspect that makes Egghead & Twinkie a promising if somewhat frustrating watch. You can see the vision, especially visually, of the filmmaker, but there seems to be a challenge for her to balance emotional realness with kooky youthful exuberance. Maybe it’s the old man in me, but Egghead & Twinkie more or less does live up to its scrappy and determined Gen-Z origins. It’s energetic, thinks its funnier than it may actually be*, and overall is a movie that works in the moment rather than when you think about later.

*Writer’s note: A few days after I watched this movie, my editor relayed to me that Egghead & Twinkie won the Jury Award for Comedy Vanguard at Austin Film Fest. Never have I ever felt more out of touch with the comedy of this burgeoning generation. I’ll do better, Gen Z!