Adi Madden Cabrera in Edie Arnold Is a Loser
Edie Arnold (Adi Madden Cabrera) is, indeed, a loser. Sure, she’s pretty, but she’s also shy, awkward, and cuttingly sarcastic. She spends her days at Our Lady of Undying Sadness all-girls Catholic high school hanging with her own little tribe of misfits led by Frances (McKenna Tuckett), a red-haired wrecking ball sporting a massive set of orthodontic headgear. Edie and Frances “play” “music” with the school choir (Edie on the drums, Frances on organ), a minimal-effort activity that lets them sit in the back pulling their Statler-and-Waldorf routine at the expense of the popular mean girls like Kati Vidal (Alana Mei Kern). The pair sneak out and go to punk show and, after a series of unfortunate events, Edie ends up onstage—and kills it on the drums. Next thing you know, she and Frances are leading their own minimally skilled punk band, The Nundead. There’s a battle of the bands coming up, but Edie’s wholesome mom Luanne (Cherish Rodriguez) won’t approve, and the dictatorial Sister Myra (Star Herrmann) has promised expulsion once she can prove who keeps posting these loathsome, Satanic show fliers all around school. Add in the competing affections of the gorgeous Walter Boyd “The Altar Boy” (Lucas Van Orden) and cool-on-the-outside, awkward-on-the-inside guitarist Iggy (Gabe Root) and what’s a girl to do?
As a Catholic school survivor myself, I can say with some authority that writer and co-director Megan Rico nails the experience from the first frames—she really did attend Catholic high school and penned the script “in the aftermath of Catholic school, rejection, and self-loathing, when the only escape was humor, rage, and punk rock.” Most importantly, she doesn’t just remember what Catholic school was like, but what being a teenager is like, and her characters look, sound, act, react, and even talk like real teenagers, even mixing in just the right amount of mild profanity to ring true while still being on the right side of “appropriate.” (“Don’t be a pussy!” “Frances! You can’t say ‘pussy’ in church!”) Interestingly, though, Rico and her co-director Kade Atwood don’t always strive for realism visually, from several trippy dream sequences to moments that go full Looney Tunes mode, with characters exaggerating their movements and sometimes even having literal cartoons superimposed on the screen. It plays like a spiritual cousin to Edgar Wright’s Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, without all the epic video game battles.
The movie’s script and style are great, but it’s the performances that really elevate Edie Arnold Is a Loser. It’s unbelievable that neither Cabrera nor Tuckett had ever acted for film before (Cabrera has one other short on her IMDB, Tuckett has no other credits). Cabrera is exactly what the role calls for, funny and awkward and so dang likeable, yet also relatably far from perfect; she shoulders the emotional arc of the movie with real screen presence, and if there’s any justice, we’ll see a lot more of her in the future. Tuckett just has this insane gonzo energy—it almost feels like too much at first until it sinks in that Frances is defined by her too-much-ness. Their parts are smaller but both Van Orden and Kern each get a scene where their seemingly cliché characters take an unexpected twist, and both exploit those shifts for maximum laughs. The movie is a brisk 73 minutes, and these performances will keep you smiling and laughing the whole time.
The one thing I sadly can’t report back on: the music! Music obviously features fairly heavily in a movie about a punk rock band, but the advance screener made available to press did not have the music in it. From what I can tell from the trailer (which I’ve included below), it seems like it fits the tone of the rest of the movie perfectly.
Even without being able to hear the music, I loved, loved, loved this movie. It’s funny, it’s relatable, and any cliché elements are elevated by the film’s sharp script, unique visual style, and fantastic central cast. When it hits VOD, I will watch it again. If it comes out on Blu-Ray, I will buy it. I’m always down to watch a good coming-of-age movie, but this is a great one. | Jason Green
Edie Arnold is a Loser will screen at the Arkadin Cinema & Bar (5228 Gravois Ave.) on Friday, November 13 at 5:30 pm as part of the St. Louis International Film Festival 2026. Single film tickets are $15 for general admission, $12 for Cinema St. Louis members, seniors, military, and students with valid current photo IDs. Multi-film and all-access passes are also available. Further information is available here.
