Review by Logan Kenny
I have a personal connection to Bill and Ted, as a lot of people do. As an undiagnosed autistic kid, I tended to fixate on things without a real understanding as to why. I clung onto the stories of Greek mythology, the infinite lore of the Star Wars universe, every capital city in the world, and a couple of particular movies that stimulated me like no other. Tron: Legacy was one, Clue was another, and Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure was the third. Over the course of my childhood and early adolescence, I watched the first installment of the Bill and Ted trilogy at least a hundred times, finding comfort in the rhythms of these two best friends’ adventure throughout time. The way it disregarded logic and convention for the sake of pure joy always stuck with me. It was always there when I was struggling, no matter what that was.
Over the last few months, I’ve faced an unprecedented crisis in my life. I almost lost the love of my life to COVID-19, and due to the severity of the pandemic, had to just wait in my room at home as she fought in the hospital. The idea of sitting up at 4 in the morning thinking that your partner might be dead is a sensation that I hope few ever have to feel. It rots away your hope and ages you rapidly; I’ve never been more tired. As I wait for her to officially get released from the facility she’s in right now and go home, the burden of the last few months envelops me like a weighted blanket and it’s difficult to truly process what the two of us have been through. But if I was asked if I’d go through it all again, if I’d embark on this relationship with her knowing that months of pain would happen so soon after our partnership began, I’d say yes without a second thought. There isn’t much greater consolation in the world than two people who’ve went through different types of hell truly realising that they’re perfect together because of it. I’m grateful for her, for all the memories we’ve been able to craft in the last few months in spite of the circumstances, and approaching the hopeful end of this nightmare.
This doesn’t have much to do with Bill and Ted Face the Music as a document on its own, but it’s crucial to understand how important this movie is to me right now. The comfort of my youth becoming the comfort of my adulthood – a new version of these characters and shenanigans designed to protect me like I needed so badly. I never thought that the rumours of a Bill and Ted 3 would ever come true. Even when it was confirmed to be happening, my faith was low; I’ve been burned before by dream projects that never came to fruition. Yet even after the images were released, the trailer was put together, and a date was given, I still didn’t really process it was actually here until it started playing in front of me. I felt like a kid again seeing these men – clearly older, but still the exact same characters they’ve always been. It could have easily just been nostalgia-baiting, and I wouldn’t have cared. Just the opportunity to linger in this universe again would admittedly have been enough for me. But Bill and Ted Face the Music is something more, and it hit me on an emotional level that I wasn’t expecting. It is one of the most emotional tributes to family, friendship and the power of creation that I’ve ever seen, and in the current chaos of everything, its sincere optimism and compassion makes things a little easier to bear.
Bill and Ted’s destiny is exactly what it’s been for the previous two entries: they are going to write the song that saves the world. As middle aged men, they have failed. They are satisfied with their existences, still married to their wives, have both had daughters that they named after their best friend (Theodora “Thea” Preston and Wilhelmina “Billie” Logan) and live in neighbouring houses as they keep trying to create that perfect song. Unfortunately, the future has visited them and has announced that Bill and Ted only have 78 minutes to create this piece of music; otherwise, time itself will cease to exist. This sends Bill and Ted on a panicked journey through their futures to find versions of themselves who have written the song, while their daughters go back in time to assemble the perfect band. There is also drama over Bill and Ted’s collectivist thinking making solo intimacy with their wives difficult, a killer robot plagued with guilt, and genius musician Kid Cudi being the physics-obsessed saviour of the universe.
Bill and Ted Face the Music is extremely silly and like its predecessors, it is gleeful in disregarding established time travel logic and narrative cohesion for comedic impact. It doesn’t care about the logistics of all time-periods experiencing music at the same moment; it just does what it wants to do. No creative decision made in this film feels like it’s trying to capitalise on greater industry trends or follow the absurdly telegraphed structure of modern blockbusters. It feels like this is what everyone involved wanted to do. The protagonists are so well defined here, with Bill and Ted’s established adorable goofiness and co-dependence being combined with the realities of aging and living with failure, to their daughters’ similar aloofness mixed with encyclopedic music knowledge and unexpectedly intelligent plans. Each character, even the ones we haven’t met before, has a weight to them. You can feel their history from the way they interact with others, the intricacies of Billie and Thea’s dynamic as they were raised like sisters, the complexities of the murderous robot Dennis (a very silly running gag that made me laugh) as he lingers with the guilt intrinsic to his creation, and of course the relationship between Bill and Ted themselves.
While there is potential for the apocalypse itself to be created in the next 90 minutes, that doesn’t change who Bill and Ted are. They become desperate to save the universe, to protect their daughters, and show their wives how much they love them of course – but their love for each other only grows. It’s a very emotional dynamic as even after decades of absence. These boys are still the high school seniors that love each other more than anything else. No matter what crisis happens in the grander scheme of things, Bill and Ted will do air guitar and cling onto each other through it all. As they travel forward through time, the importance of their bond becomes further cemented. They meet differing alternative versions of themselves, from disgruntled bar rockers, to manipulative washed up liars, to roided up prisoners desperate for revenge, and despite all the chaos of their existences, Bill and Ted still cling onto each other through the worst. No matter what changes, no matter what time travel has done to their realities, they are best friends and will be together to the end. This culminates in our versions of Bill and Ted travelling to the distant future and finding themselves as old men, lying in a nursing home, with their beds still right next to each other. Both men are prepared to die together, to spend their last seconds of existence with their best boy, because that’s what love is to them. It is unspeakably emotional to me to witness a connection in friendship like that, particularly since my best friend and I have that kind of relationship where we’d complain in the old folks’ home side by side. There aren’t many movies as poignant about the bonds of friendship like Bill and Ted are, how both men strengthen each other through their connection, how they’ve conveyed that same type of relationship over to their daughters. There is no tragedy or heartbreak stemming from their bond, just consolation that they’ve got each other. Alex Winter and Keanu Reeves perform these characters like no time has passed, just overwhelming joy to be in the same room with each other again. They’ve always had supernatural chemistry but here they have the type of dynamic only possible after decades. It’s really beautiful to watch.
The daughters are just as good, and given almost as much priority as Bill and Ted by the writers. They are smarter than their fathers but have the exact same demeanour, with actors Samara Weaving and Brigette Lundy-Paine taking clear inspiration from Winter and Reeves’ performances in Excellent Adventure. The two are brilliant together, with natural comic timing and great chemistry. A highlight is their attempt to convince Jimi Hendrix to be part of their impromptu historical band: they approach such a ridiculous gag with incredible straight faced dorkiness. Their line delivery and expressive facial reactions make their scenes delightful to watch, and there’s no disappointment whenever the film cuts away from Bill and Ted. Their inclusion and storyline is the perfect way to tie Face the Music back to its Excellent Adventure roots, while the Bill and Ted content is focused on propelling the IP into its strange, beautiful future.
The film doesn’t only incorporate Excellent Adventure, but brings back Bogus Journey’s absurdist depiction of the afterlife with the return of William Sadler’s Death. Hell is represented in Face the Music as a labyrinth of bored demons with flames blazing in the horizon, but it’s also a place where Death is lingering in a small cabin bitter about the reaction to his solo bass LP. This combination of striking imagery and weird jokes is the perfect encapsulation of the entire series’ sense of humour. Sadler is a highlight as before, giving such a sincerely committed performance, providing some of the funniest moments of the film with his bitterness towards former bandmates Bill and Ted. It’s clear that he’s delighted to be back in this universe again. The celebration of the past in this series is important, not for exclusive nostalgia purposes, but the film is all about the symbiosis of time and how it’s crucial for all elements to click together to ensure the future. Getting those little moments that define the series into the new framework of Face the Music is really special.
Despite all the silliness of the entire film, the most important element is the transition into the next generation. The declaration of love and support from Bill and Ted towards their daughters, believing in them completely – even if it means they’ll step aside from the spotlight – brings tears to the eyes. Bill and Ted Face The Music is exceptionally sentimental and embeds that sentimentality with their trademark shenanigans. There aren’t many franchises that could get cathartic power from Mozart doing a keyboard riff next to Death. By the end, what matters isn’t being the greatest force in the universe or saving all of time itself, but getting to share your passions with your family and friends. Watching the joy on these men’s faces as they play their guitars alongside their daughters, getting to rock out harder than ever before, was an indescribable moment. Bill and Ted get to feel that total embrace of music and love, surrounded by everyone that’s ever meant something to them, and creating the brand new age through beautiful sounds and intimate connection.
On a personal note, it’s very special to see a figure like Kid Cudi who has meant a lot to me throughout my life be featured in this production. Watching Cudi genuinely have fun being the scientific expert of the film made me smile harder than just about anything else from this year. It feels special to watch someone who helped save my life with his songs be involved with something that defined my childhood. It made me very emotional after a torturous year to see Kid Cudi interact with Bill and Ted, to feel that uncontrollable childlike joy that isn’t frequent as an adult in 2020. No matter what happens in the future, it’s enriching to know that alongside the people I love, there’s always going to be this movie to keep me grounded. From being an autistic child to an autistic adult, Bill and Ted have always been here for me. Right now, my girlfriend seems to be okay – but the worry that she’ll get worse again hasn’t left. But for an hour and a half, the fear was put to the side as I smiled in a way I haven’t since she’s been gone. The film might not be for everyone, but for those of us who needed some light after a rough year, it provides everything you could ever want from a third Bill and Ted film. After all, it’s so comforting to imagine that you’ll be sitting next to the best friend you’ve ever had near the end of your life, still rocking with your guitars together until it’s all over.