The roller backpack is the ultimate testament to function over fashion.
Actor turned first time feature director of “Brian” Will Ropp wished he had had the courage to bring a roller backpack to school. The decision would have invited an onslaught of public ridicule, naturally. But his back would have been unburdened by heavy textbooks. In this case, the vicious court of high school public opinion triumphed over personal preference.
Ropp presents the allegory of the roller back as the central theme of his film. The film’s eponymous Brian, played by rising star Ben Wang, is one big, walking, talking roller backpack. He doesn’t quite fit in. He doesn’t quite feel comfortable in his own skin. He hasn’t quite yet figured it out. Despite not quite being perched at the top of the high school totem pole, he dares to be Brian. He mounts an underdog campaign for school president. His campaign trail ain’t pretty at times, but hey, he’s rolling that backpack with pride.
The film’s actors all had proverbial roller backpacks in their lives, which were, for some, literally backpacks. Ropp, along with the film’s stars William H. Macy, Randall Park, Edi Patterson, Peyton Elizabeth Lee and Joshua Colley spoke to the Knockturnal about life’s roller backpacks.
Macy, who plays Brian’s therapist, shared that it was decidedly uncool to sport white socks to school when he was a teenager. Public opprobrium be damned, he wore those shiny white socks to school anyways. Park, who plays Brian’s dad, noticed his classmates opting for the one-strap method of wearing a backpack. Uncomfortable and bad for your posture, he thought. So he too went against the grain by snugly slinging both straps over his shoulders. The rest of the cast shared anecdotes about marching to the beat of their own drum in high school.
Brian premiered March 14 at South by Southwest Film and TV Festival in Austin, Texas.
