The latest Netflix special to hold us in a year where we could all use a hug is All Together Now: a drama by Brett Haley. Released at the tail end of the summer that didn’t exist, Haley’s adaptation of Matthew Quick’s Sorta Like a Rockstar is meant to feel like the tail end of a school semester, and the lead in to post secondary education. Our perspective is Amber Appleton, played by Auliʻi Cravalho in a role that finally gives the Moana star a bit of range to work with. Amber is homeless, and lives on a school bus that her struggling mother (Justina Machado) drives by dar. Amber takes on far too many responsibilities, including ESL teaching and putting on an end-of-year variety show for her high school to support charities. She is all smiles on the outside, but she burns on the inside, and Cravalho’s infectious personality carries Amber’s sweet stubbornness. She refuses help, but keeps fighting. With a number of friendly faces and fun characters, All Together Now details who Amber keeps striving for: her drama teacher who believes in her (Fred Armisen), a bitter, lonely geriatric she hopes to bring joy to (Carol Burnett), and her friend she has a crush on (Rhenzy Feliz), amongst others.

All Together Now starts off fairly tightly, with all of Amber’s daily routines clicking together and making sense. We see how she manages to get food, is able to get to school, budget what she earns, and more. Her mother’s alcoholism and relationship with an abuser begins to alter the slowly progressing world Amber has set in place, and this affects how they live and Amber’s quest to either 1) move somewhere that’s an actual home, or 2) get to her university music audition (the latter being a possible out for her predicament, but an extra burden to carry). The film manages to juggle all of this for a little while. It’s with the second act onwards that All Together Now begins to falter. It has no idea how to craft Amber at her lowest point. She lashes out of frustration, which is understandable. However, this doesn’t affect her situations at all, since everyone that is willing to help her continues to do so. So, Amber comes off as incessantly rude and unappreciative in the meantime, which is not a tone you want to set for your protagonist who is going through some really difficult scenarios that real people sadly deal with on a regular basis.

By the third act, Amber’s stubbornness is now getting frustrating. We still stick by her because of everything she has been through, but it’s almost a begrudging effort at this point. The film kind of rolls around in her misery, and it lingers for too long without enough progression for it to make sense. If we had someone else that wasn’t as likeable as Auliʻi Cravalho, making it this far may have been an absolute test of patience. The film then feels incredibly cynical with what it tosses Amber’s way, with a series of events to dampen her spirits; with some of these never feeling fully solved, it feels less like we’re seeing a protagonist weather the storm, and more like All Together Now is seeing how much it can get away with. This is especially true, considering how much the film falls apart in its final moments. A resolution that comes out of nowhere is meant to feel warm, and it does to a degree; it genuinely caught me off guard, and the lead up to it is well executed. However, it still feels slightly off; how exactly was it pulled off? Without spoiling, something just doesn’t add up with how Amber’s situation is solved in the way that it was solved, as if it feels convenient to the point of impossibility.

The final seconds are also a bit of a let down. Here we have a film that’s tossing so much at a character who clearly has dealt with enough, and we’re left with the possibility of “what if?” to guide our thoughts. For a film that insists it’s trying to show light in hardship, All Together Now is quite bleak in its resolution. Did some things get wrapped up? Yes. Did enough? I’d argue no. For the most part, All Together Now is still a warm take on extreme difficulty done with the best intentions. Its inclusive casting is treated just right, and the veteran faces are handled nicely. The majority of All Together Now works enough to keep you invested, even during the toppling third act. With enough sweetness and tenderness, the film’s faults feel tolerable. Plus, you’ll likely side with Amber for long enough to care about her wellbeing, even during her more challenging moments. All Together Now isn’t completely all together, but it’s getting by enough to work, and it kind of does.

Andreas Babiolakis has a Masters degree in Film and Photography Preservation and Collections Management from Ryerson University, as well as a Bachelors degree in Cinema Studies from York University. His favourite times of year are the Criterion Collection flash sales and the annual Toronto International Film Festival.