This Egghead & Twinkie review was written during the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. Without the labor of the writers and actors who are currently on strike, movies like this one would not be possible, and Autostraddle is grateful for the artists who do this work. This review contains spoilers.

Outfest took place in Los Angeles between July 13 and Jul 23. Sa’iyda Shabazz and Drew Gregory have brought you all kinds of reviews. If you’re interested in viewing many of these films, Outfits is also presenting them virtually until July 30th. 

I have been a fan of teen movies since I was nine. As I get older, I find myself less interested in them. It makes sense, I’m much closer to 40 than I am to 18, and I just relate to life differently now. But when I saw the trailer for Egghead & Twinkie, I knew it was a movie I needed to see, even if I wasn’t the target audience. And I’m so glad I did.

Twinkie is a 17-year-old Chinese girl who lives in Florida. She was adopted by white parents who are currently separated but trying to get back together. Egghead is her 18-year-old best friend. He’s your typical nerdy white guy, but he’s also very sweet. Twinkie points out that they have a bunch of things in common: slushies, anime, soft pretzels, and girls. No one knows that last part except Twinkie though.

The story is told largely in flashback while Twinkie and Egghead sit in a diner somewhere in the middle of nowhere, Texas. We learn that the pair are on a road trip to Dallas so that Twinkie can meet BD, her internet sort of girlfriend who she’s never met before. BD is DJing at an 18 and over club and plans to sneak Twinkie in. Twinkie convinced Egghead to drive her there because she doesn’t have a driver’s license and he drives her everywhere. But she doesn’t initially tell him why she wants to go to Texas — she makes up a story about wanting to go to some animation event.

Before their road trip, Egghead took Twinkie to a movie and kissed her. As she’s telling her parents what happened, she declares that the kiss “solidifies my theory that I’m a raging homosexual.” Her super conservative dad flips out and tells her that she’s “too young” to know this about herself and that it’s “inappropriate” to talk about this “lesbian business.” This prompts her to essentially run away from home to go and see BD. She doesn’t say it, but I think she needed the trip to prove to herself that she is, in fact, a lesbian.

The relationship between Twinkie and her parents, especially her father, is one of the main sources of conflict in the film. He’s your typical white, Christian Floridian father. Even though he’s not living in the house, he is the head of the household and expects Twinkie and her mother to just do what he says without questioning it. By comparison, Twinkie’s mom is more accepting, albeit a little timid and clueless. She teasingly refers to Egghead as Twinkie’s “boyfriend,” insinuating that the only reason he spends so much time with her is because he likes her. (I mean, he does like her, but that’s not his only reason for spending time with her.) She seems like a nice enough woman, even if she does let her husband push her around.

Twinkie’s identity is another huge component of the film. Not just her identity as a young lesbian, but as a transracial adoptee. Her name is actually Vivian, but we learn that she’s adopted the moniker Twinkie because people tell her she is “yellow on the outside, and white on the inside.” Her Asianness is something she has no real relationship with because of her incredibly white parents. Even though they try to help her get in touch with her heritage, she explains that she doesn’t fit in with the Asian kids either.

During their road trip, Twinkie and Egghead meet Jess, a waitress at a Chinese restaurant in the middle of nowhere, Texas. Jess introduces Twinkie to taro flavored bubble tea and it’s clear that there are some sparks between them. When the car Twinkie stole from her dad breaks down, she ends up back at Jess’s family’s restaurant. They spend the day together, sharing clothes, doing each other’s makeup and having some really deep conversations about culture and queerness. Jess is bisexual, and has had the space to explore her sexuality in ways that Twinkie hasn’t. She also tells Twinkie that other people can’t define her relationship to her Asianness, only she can do that. I love that Jess is Twinkie’s first entry into what a queer girl is like in the flesh.

I also absolutely adore the relationship between Twinkie and Egghead. He really steps up and is there for her, even though he’s got to sort through his feelings of rejection. Not once does he make her not being romantically interested in him her problem. Even when he gets mad at her and blows up (which I do understand), it comes from the place of being hurt by your best friend who you feel you’re growing apart from. It’s clear that Twinkie can still trust him with her deepest fears, and he does not take that responsibility for granted. Whenever she says that she wants to hear her homophobic parents tell her they still love her, Egghead steps up and fills that gap. He’s never mad about her being a lesbian, he’s bummed that she didn’t trust him enough to tell him the truth. When she gets her heart broken by BD, he is the one who is there to console her and tell her that hope may not be lost.

Sabrina Jie-A-Fa and Louis Tomeo, who play the titular characters, have great chemistry. Jie-A-Fa in particular is a great actress. She really takes on the role of Twinkie and makes carrying the film on her shoulders seem effortless. She infuses Twinkie with heart and finds those places to tap into deep emotions, and also be utterly joyful. Tomeo has an easy charm that makes you fall in love with both him and Egghead almost instantly. It would be so easy for him to play the nerdy guy trope, but he doesn’t; he actually makes Egghead a person. I also want to shout out Asahi Hirano as Jess. She wears Jess’s heart on her sleeve and face, and I absolutely adored the chemistry between her and Sabrina Jie-A-Fa.

There are two themes in Egghead & Twinkie that I really love: one is the idea of a road trip comedy. If you put two people together in a car and let the hilarity ensue, I’m very here for it. I feel like with teen comedies, filmmakers try to shoehorn in a million outrageous situations for the characters to find themselves in. And when you have a road trip comedy, there is the space for that, but this team chose to take the simple approach and it was such a brilliant idea. There’s a great diner scene where Twinkie’s dad’s stolen credit card is declined and Egghead can’t find his wallet. It plays out exactly the way you expect it to, and then the car’s out of gas. I was cracking up, truly.

Twinkie’s dream is to become an animator, and it is another theme that is so brilliantly incorporated into the film. Her drawings are everywhere in the film — sometimes animations are overlaid onto the screen in the film, and part of the story is told through her drawings instead of seeing the actors act it out on screen. It would be so easy to just mention that the character likes to draw and maybe see her sketch in her book, but to have it be an additional character in the film made it that much more fun and interesting. The animated moments and sequences add a certain touch of whimsy to the film that I enjoyed immensely. Plus, it really drives home Twinkie’s point of view and gives us additional insight into what she’s thinking.

Out of the movies that I reviewed for Outfest, this one was by far my favorite. It has everything you’re looking for in a feel-good comedy, it just happens to be about teenagers. There is so much heart and emotional depth, and it is truly just rock solid storytelling. I think filmmakers feel like they have to make teen movies full of quick jokes and flash to keep up with the slickness of social media, but Egghead & Twinkie shows that you don’t need any of that to tell a good story. Though the movie is made for and about teens, you absolutely do not need to be a teen to enjoy it.

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