‘Egghead & Twinkie’ at Laemmle, On Demand April, 2025

A special screening of Egghead & Twinkie,” a 2023 Outfest favorite, will happen this Thursday, April 24, a week before the film comes available on demand on Tuesday, April 29, 2025, in the U.S. and Canada.

Filmmaker Holland

The screening that includes a Q&A with filmmaker Sarah Kambe Holland and castmembers begins at 7 p.m. at Laemmle Glendale, 207 N. Maryland Ave. (Click for information & tickets),

During Outfest 2023, Goweho Editor Laurie Schenden reviewed the film, which writer-director Holland based on her teen self, and is reprinted here:

Conservative Movement

In the current climate where some people believe that blocking LGBTQ history and restricting LGBTQ rights are effective ways to forestall same-sex attractions in young people, the tactics may keep some in the closet for a time, but it’s unlikely to change their minds.

Actress Sabrina Jie-A-Fa.

“Egghead & Twinkie” has a lot going on, but its primary focus is 17-year-old Twinkie (Sabrina Jie-A-Fa, pictured, right).

Twinkie begs, borrows and steals to get to Texas, where she expects to meet her Insta crush at a dance club. She enlists the help of her bestie Egghead (Louis Tomeo), a neighbor boy she’s known since 4th grade, who happens to have a secret crush on her.

A Gen-Z Thing

Writer-director Holland utilizes all things Gen Z in her film—texts, emojis, animation and popups, offering a fast-paced, fun and colorful road adventure. On the verge of adulthood, the self-centered Twinkie is lugging around some heavy baggage as an adopted Asian child.  (She embraces the name Twinkie, after kids said she was yellow on the outside, white on the inside.)

At times Twinkie seems mature, and has confidence that she knows what she wants, despite her parents’ insistence that she’s too young to know.

But she doesn’t make the most mature decisions when it comes to chasing the crush she met online. Taking a car without asking, lying to her best friend, making poor choices are impulsive and immature actions that catch up to her later.

Autobiographical Themes

Holland said she came up with the concept for “Egghead & Twinkie” when she “was fresh out of the closet” at 19.

“I had been reluctant to come out,” she said, “in part because the media had taught me to fear it. In my experience, one of the best ways to overcome fear is through humor, so this film is my earnest attempt to find the comedy in the coming out process without trivializing the struggles that queer people endure to be themselves.

“While our world has become increasingly divided,” she added, “I believe that this project can entertain mainstream audiences while simultaneously advocating for minority representation.”

The film is an authentic, well-told story that shows that young people are going to do what curious, resourceful, sneaky, impulsive young people do.

What their parents want and expect are not always in sync with what they have in mind for themselves. In that respect, maybe not that much has changed.