Edie Arnold Is A Loser is a vibrant, funny, and loud celebration of finding where you belong. It is not perfect, but it is still a fun watch.
Going into a high school coming-of-age movie, you usually know exactly what is going to happen and how things are going to play out. But every so often, a film comes along with enough heart to make you overlook that. Edie Arnold Is A Loser is one of those movies.
From the jump, the film’s energy is infectious. Directors Megan Rico and Kade Atwood clearly have a deep appreciation for a specific brand of hyper-stylized filmmaking. I picked up on heavy Scott Pilgrim Saves The World vibes almost immediately – the editing is snappy, the visual flourishes are playful, and the transitions have a rhythmic pulse that matches the soundtrack.
For a movie about a budding drummer, that sense of timing is everything. As a massive music lover, the performances feel authentic and are genuinely entertaining – even if the lyrics left a lot to be desired.
At the center of the chaos is Adi Madden Cabrera, who delivers a standout performance as Edie. She is truly the heart and soul of this film. Watching her navigate the rigid halls of her Catholic school with that signature dorky hesitation felt incredibly personal to me. Having spent my own high school years feeling like a bit of an outsider with a limited social circle, I found Edie’s struggle to find her voice deeply relatable. You can’t help but root for her the moment she accidentally ends up behind that drum kit.
However, Edie’s journey sometimes feels like it’s fighting for air whenever her best friend Frances is on screen. McKenna Tuckett plays Frances with a 110% commitment to being over-the-top. While I understand that the character is designed to be the high-energy, eccentric opposite of Edie’s mild-mannered nature, I’ll admit it got a bit grating at times.
There were moments where I wished the volume on Frances had been turned down just a notch, if only to give our title character more space to shine. When your lead is as likable as Cabrera, you want to soak in every bit of her development without being distracted by the loudest person in the room.
The film clocks in at just one hour and 15 minutes. On one hand, the pacing is fantastic – it flies by, never overstaying its welcome or dragging through unnecessary subplots. On the other hand, that brevity is a double-edged sword. By the time we reached the final few moments, I felt like we were missing some connective tissue. If the film had been granted an extra 15 minutes of runtime, it could have tied up some of the secondary plot points in a better way.
All of that to say, the emotional payoff works. Edie Arnold Is A Loser is a vibrant, funny, and loud celebration of finding where you belong. It’s a love letter to the dorks who find their confidence in the most unlikely places – like the back of a punk stage.
About Edie Arnold Is A Loser
Timid Catholic school dork Edie Arnold is dragged to a punk show where a mishap lands her on stage behind the drums. She’s mortified… but a natural. Convinced by her best friend, she secretly forms a band called The NunDead. Her newfound confidence leads to a date with the altar boy but also a fight that gets her suspended.
Thinking she bailed on their first gig, her bandmates bust her out of the house just in time to win a Battle of the Bands. But when she faces expulsion and her mother’s wrath at a disciplinary hearing, footage of her kick-ass performance has an unexpected effect on her mom.
Edie Arnold Is A Loser celebrated its world premiere at SXSW on March 13, 2026.
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Tessa Smith is a Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer-approved Film and TV Critic. On Camera personality and TV / Film Critic with 10+ years of experience in video editing, writing, editing, moderating, and hosting.