Crossroads was released in February 2002. The movie is about three friends who go on a road trip right after high school graduation. The movie stars Britney Spears, Zoe Saldana, Taryn Manning, Anson Mount, Justin Long, Kim Cattrall, and Dan Aykroyd. 

I thought Crossroads was good for what it was. The main attraction of the movie was the fact that Britney Spears was the star. Britney Spears was a big a pop star when the movie was released. The film came out after her third album came out. That album featured the tracks I’m Not a Girl, Not Yet a Woman, Overprotected, and I Love Rock & Roll which were all featured in the movie. The Darkchild remix of Overprotected was the one in the movie. Britney Spears did a good job as the lead especially given it was her first starring role. It did seem that the movie and role were tailored to her. It would have been interesting to see how things would have progressed if Britney Spears pursued more acting roles in her career. The rest of the cast did a good job. The three leads had good chemistry together. It was cool to see Zoe Saldana in an early role. I was not aware until a few years ago that she was even in Crossroads. Taryn Manning also did a good job in her role. Anson Mount was good as the love interest to Britney Spears’ character Lucy. 

As a coming of age movie, it does the job. It was fairly typical. There was some melodrama that seems par for the course for these types of movies. The movie is not anything special, but it is a good watch for a quiet night at home. 

I am surprised and not surprised that the movie did not do that well in theaters. Given how big of a star Britney Spears was at the time, I thought the film would have dominated the box office. I was eleven when the film came out. I didn’t know any better. I can understand why the film wasn’t bigger. It seemed to be a movie only Britney Spears’ fanbase would be interested in, and I am not really sure how many of her fans turned out for it when it came out. I was actually not allowed to see the movie at the time and my parents didn’t want to sit through it anyway. My interest in the movie dropped as the years went by. Hence why it took now to finally get around to watching it. 

Crossroads clocks in at little over ninety minutes. I think that was long enough. There didn’t seem to be much juice to go any further. A lot of the plot was typical and surface level. There is nothing wrong with that. It was pleasant to watch. 

Crossroads does its job well as a road trip coming of age melodrama. It is light and easy to sit through. It serves as a good starring vehicle for Britney Spears, and it does a good job of incorporating music including several of her songs.