In rural 1977 Georgia, a misfit girl dreams of life in outer space. When a competition offers her a chance to be recorded on NASA’s Golden Record, she recruits a makeshift troop of Birdie Scouts, forging friendships that last a lifetime.
Christmas Flint (McKenna Grace) could be anyone’s inquisitive and fearless child, but she just happens to be the daughter of “Boss” (Jim Gaffigan), a small-town Wiggly, Georgia attorney who is trying his best to navigate life after the loss of his wife. While he realizes that he can never be the mother that his child needs, he makes a valiant effort to ensure, in his own manly way, that she is always in the care of people who genuinely have her best interest at heart. This includes his grossly underpaid assistant, Miss Rayleen (Viola Davis) who has a great knowledge of the law and a penchant for smoking cigarettes. Rayleen, who gave up on law school due to some bad personal decisions earlier in life, seems to be getting less productive time as Boss’ assistant and more time handling mommy duties, which she totally despises.
As the film opens, Christmas is laying down and looking into the stars to determine her galactic future which means finding a way to communicate with the planet in order to prove her self-worth. Outside of attending school, where she is bullied daily, she confides in Miss Rayleen and her best friend Joseph (Charlie Shotwell) in order to gain support for her astrological future. When she happens to overhear that a NASA science representative is looking for locals to record their voice along with an international theme that will be heard throughout eternity, she gets all excited until she realizes that she must become a part of a Birdie Troop and earn badges in order to qualify. The problem is that all the members of the Birdie troop, as well as their leader, Principal Massey (Allison Janney), are the same group of bullies who chastise her and others daily because they don’t think they’re good enough to exist in their perfect society. The film kicks into high gear when Christmas gets all the bullied castoffs together to form Troop Zero and then also recruits Rayleen to be their Troop mother. By trial and plenty of human error, they come together, earn enough badges to compete in the annual Jamboree where the winner will be chosen to record with the NASA science representative, and in the end, although they didn’t win the fight, they won the war on becoming accepting of each other’s unique qualities that set them apart, yet brought them together to build a strong team.
Directors Bert & Bertie (Katie Ellwood & Amber Templemore-Finlayson) did an excellent job of choosing characters based on the reality of what today’s children actually deal with on a daily basis. The foundation of acceptance opens many paths throughout each of the characters’ existence and breaks down the significance of each one’s journey to determine the path they chose of least resistance, as well as directing them back to the main road of life. Viewers of all ages can find something to relate to as well as the opportunity to appreciate the merciless struggle of trying to become something that is disproportionately less than we already are.
Now available to stream on Amazon Prime Video
