Road trip with genuine, female voices: Farah Goes Bang Film Review

With a box of condoms ready at hand and freshly tweezed eyebrows, three friends hit the road to campaign for presidential candidate John Kerry in the coming-of-age comedy Farah Goes Bang.

This movie was crowdfunded through Kickstarter, raising a total of $81,160 exceeding its goal of $75,000 in 32 days and is named in the 15 highest-grossing narrative film campaigns and the top 50 film campaigns to date on the site. The director Meera Menon won the Nora Ephren Prize at the Tribeca Film Festival, which honors female directors. The film has won Best Narrative at several Asian-American Film Festivals, including in Philadelphia.

The film follows Farah, a young 20-something wishing to lose her virginity while on a road trip with her besties Roopa, an aspiring politician, and K.J., a ruff-tough gal ready to fight to defend her friends. This diverse group of girls, both in personality and cultural background, causes some trouble as they detour through red states like Texas to campaign for Kerry.

Constantly teased by her friends for still having her virginity, Farah struggles find think of herself as desirable. It’s not that she’s not an attractive young woman – in the film she is hit on by several young men (some attractive, some not so much). There are several intimate scenes where she fusses, plucks, and shaves her body hair, revealing her fixation over her looks. It’s only when she reaches personal triumphs in the campaign that she gains the confidence to lose her virginity.

The dialogue between girls is a comedic banter over sexuality and politics. The audience giggled as Farah exclaims that their goal is to, “Get Bush out of office!” The other girls repeat back, “Get your bush out of office,” poking fun at Farah’s intact virginity. On the ride, the girls also debate over whether they would sleep with John Edwards or John Kerry. These girls are the silly, perverted roommates that laugh over the stupidest things, but you can’t help but join along.

The storyline is pretty predictable. Obviously there will be a conflict among the girls while on their journey. But of course they’ll make up by the time it reaches Election Day, when they dance under the night sky, celebrating the end of the campaign. Farah loses her virginity to a very attractive man who lives near the lake house the girls are staying at. And of course, there are fireworks.

A mix between Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants and Britney Spears’ Crossroads, Farah Goes Bang adds genuine, complex characters to the road trip genre told from the female voice. If you’re done with the corny Lifetime movie drama, but still want light-hearted movie to watch with your girlfriends, check out Farah Goes Bang.