Movie Reviews

‘Turbo Cola’ review: Coming of age at the end of the millennium

Party like it’s 1999.

June 13, 2022

Turbo Cola takes audiences back to one of the most chaotic, exciting and for some, terrifying moments in history. When the calendar was ready to flip to the 21st century, there were talks of prophecies, credit scores being reset, and the Y2K bug. Caught up in all the zaniness that was the end of the millennium was the fact that some people were just trying to figure out what to do with their lives.

Austin Morris (Nicholas Stoesser) has decided to forgo the biggest party of the year to work overtime at Quality Mart. His plan is to rob the ATM with his friend Swearsky (Jared Spears) and to run off to New York with the girl of his dreams (Jordyn Denning). Sounds simple enough.

Turbo Cola uses charming characters and an engaging story to capture a unique period in time. Director Luke Covert (who was also one of the film’s writers) transports audiences to the late 1990s. The music, fashion, and mannerisms are a sometimes painful reminder of the time.

Of course, nostalgia can only take work for so long. An overreliance on what people loved back in the day ends up being boring and frustrating. Turbo Cola may be set at the end of the 20th century, but it is a story that anyone can appreciate. The cast does a great job of getting across the feeling of hope and frustration everyone goes through as they head into adulthood.

Since the majority of Turbo Cola takes place in a convenience story, it will be easy to compare it to Clerks. While it has some of the indie sensibilities of the Kevin Smith classic, it is very much its own movie. It is a fun coming of age film that will take audiences back to 1999 – whether they lived through it or not.