The Veronica Mars movie is out in New York! It’s at the Village 7 theater, but with only four shows per day I have no idea how long it will be there, or if it will even last to the weekend. Funded by a Kickstarter campaign, it appears to have almost no distribution and no advertising; there weren’t even any trailers before the movie, which gives you a clue as to how its financial prospects are regarded by the film industry. If it weren’t for a chance meeting of someone who saw the film in Philadelphia this past weekend, it probably would have come and gone with my even knowing. So my wife and I bolted to the Village 7 a couple nights ago and sat in a largely empty theater with a small collection of similarly thrilled enthusiasts. I can report that for any lover of the show, Veronica Mars the film is pure delight, and a long time coming.

Irreviews is not a TV review site, and I consume very little television, with what little I do consume limited to occasional DVD marathon sessions of certain shows my wife and I get into. But I would like to say a brief word about the TV series which inspired this movie. I still feel that the first season of Veronica Mars was one of the best and most enjoyable things I’ve ever seen on TV, and Veronica Mars herself is probably the coolest and most likable character I’ve ever seen on TV. Not only were the stories wonderful, but the show was so deliciously subversive! All the rich people are total fucking pricks, Veronica and her dad are poor social outcasts living in a shit apartment, Veronica is a friendless, despised pariah in high school, the police are totally incompetent and corrupt, and class warfare and class issues dominate everything in her town. As a teenage private investigator, Veronica bends the rules and breaks laws, but her cleverness, industry and imagination is all in the service of a grand social project: balancing the scales between the have and the have-nots, the privileged and the shat-upon, by ascertaining and standing up for the truth, as an inescapable social calling born from the circumstances of her life and her attempt to know herself.

The show was so remarkable and unusual in its combination of ideas that I guess it’s not too surprising that it died well before its time. I’ve been waiting impatiently ever since for Kristen Bell to land a lead movie role worthy of her talent. But I see now how futile it was to think she could ever live up to a character like Veronica Mars in a film industry almost totally incapable of a creating a female role that is not a) a sex object, b) an evil cartoon bitch, c) a brainless ditz, d) some kind of grandiose victim or bored housewife, or e) an ugly, unappealing nerd. Well, through the power of internet social activism, Kristen Bell finally has her fantastic lead role she so deserves – as Veronica Mars herself, 10 years later.

But what about the movie? It does feel a bit like a long Veronica Mars episode, and it was definitely made on a budget (the sound is well-below industry standards, for example), but I must say they really did a nice job translating and adapting this very typical Veronica Mars story to a movie format – the dialog is well-written, the pacing is strong, and they handle the film’s intro and set-up very effectively. It’s quite coherent and cohesive as a movie, surprisingly so. I was afraid they would botch the movie, thereby tarnishing my memory of the show; instead, they managed to make a film that is very enjoyable, which captures almost everything that made the show so much fun, and which brings a certain amount of closure to Veronica’s story after it was summarily yanked away from us  9 years ago.

My wife and I were in such good moods after this film it was incredible. Perhaps its just that we’re Veronica Mars freaks, but maybe it’s also because it’s a smart, funny, and socio-politically subversive story with a strong, independent, intelligent female lead character, something you almost never get to see these days. If you loved, or even liked Veronica Mars the TV show, go see this movie in theaters while you still can.